Hierarchical nanostructures composed of Ni(OH)2 nanoflakes on ZnO nanorods (NRs) are fabricated by a low-cost, fully chemical method at room-temperature. The morphological features of the ZnO NRs were varied (by changing the chemical bath deposition parameters) in terms of height and lateral size. ZnO NRs provide a large surface area substrate for the pulsed electrodeposition of nanostructured Ni(OH)2. The correlation between the synthetic parameters, the final structure and the electrochemical behavior of Ni(OH)2/ZnO nanostructures is investigated. The enzyme-free oxidation of glucose at the surface of electrodeposited Ni(OH)2 is demonstrated in 0.1 M NaOH, revealing that a proper choice of the electrodes fabrication conditions improves the glucose sensitivity up to 1.85 mA cm−2 mM−1, with a linear detection range of 0.04–2.10 mM. All the samples show a fast response time (less than 1 s …