Diabetes, as a chronic disease, can seriously affect human health. Therefore, it is important to develop a fast and high sensitive enzyme-free glucose sensor for the treatment of diabetes.In this work, the homogeneous NiCo2O4 nanowire arrays were orderly synthesized on the flexible carbon cloth (CC) by a facile hydrothermal method. Then the well-structured ZIF-67 nanocubes were grown in-situ on the as-prepared NiCo2O4 nanowires to form a hybrid nanoarchitecture. The hierarchical structure was transformed into Co3O4/NiCo2O4/CC composite after annealing in the air. The as-prepared electrode was put into 0.1M NaOH, and the cyclic voltammetry and amperometry were employed to investigate its electrocatalytic properties at room temperature. It was found that such Co3O4/NiCo2O4/CC electrode exhibited outstanding sensing properties towards glucose, including terrific sensitivity (12.835 mA mM-1 cm-2), wide linear range (form 1 μM to 1.127 mM), low detection limit (0.64 μM) and fast response time (within 2 s). In addition, it also presents excellentselectivity, reproducibility and stability. The enzyme-free glucose sensing improvement, in addition to the high porosity and large specific surface area of metal organic framework-derived (MOF-derived) Co3O4hollow nanocubes, can be attributed to the NiCo2O4 nanowire arrays affording fast channels for electron transferring between CC and Co3O4. Accordingly, this method that directly prepares hierarchical composite nanomaterials on the conductive substrate may open up a new perspective for the enhancement of non-enzymatic glucose sensing properties.© 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.