Nanostructured zinc oxide ͑nano-ZnO͒ film has been fabricated onto indium tin oxide ͑ITO͒ containing preferred ͑002͒ plane and 10 nm crystallite size using sol-gel technique for immobilization of cholesterol oxidase ͑ChOx͒. Electrochemical response of ChOx/nano-ZnO/ITO bioelectrode determined as a function of cholesterol concentration using cyclic voltammetry technique reveals improved detection range ͑5-400 mg/dl͒, low detection limit ͑0.5 mg/dl͒, fast response time ͑10 s͒, sensitivity ͑0.059 A / mg dl −1 cm −2 ͒, and low value ͑0.98 mg/dl͒ of Michaelis-Menten constant ͑K m ͒. It is shown that nano-ZnO film provides better environment and enhanced electron transfer between ChOx and electrode. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.3111429͔ Nanostructured metal oxide films such as zinc oxide ͑ZnO͒, cerium oxide, and titanium oxide have recently attracted much attention due to their interesting optical, electrical, and molecular properties for biosensor applications. [1][2][3] Among these, ZnO nanostructured film due to wide band gap ͑3.37 eV͒, large excitation binding energy ͑60 eV͒, high surface area, nontoxicity, good biocompatibility, chemical stability, and high electron communication feature is preferred for development of biosensors for clinical diagnostics. 2 The high isoelectric point ͑IEP͒ of ϳ9.5 for ZnO is advantageous for enhanced electrostatic interaction with enzymes having low IEP.Krishnamoorthy et al. 4 developed surface acoustic wave biosensor to investigate characteristics of cytokine immobilized ZnO and SiO 2 films grown onto ͑100͒ Si substrates. Wang et al. 5 prepared ZnO nanocombs to immobilize glucose oxidase. Zhu et al. 6 used ZnO nanoparticles to investigate electrochemistry of microperoxidase. Yan et al. 7 fabricated ZnO based acoustic resonator as mass sensor by multitarget magnetron sputtering under optimized deposition conditions. Wei et al. 8 utilized ZnO nanorods array for application to glucose biosensor. Meulenkamp et al. 9 prepared sol-gel based ZnO matrix for a mediator-free tyrosinase biosensor. The cholesterol biosensor based on rf sputtered nanoporous ZnO/Au film 2 shows high K m , poor detection limit and is expensive. ChOx/chitosan-ZnO bioelectrode shows K m as 0.223 mM, linearity up to 300 mg/dl and shelf life of 8 weeks. 10 The sol-gel derived nanostructured metal oxide films due to better thermal stability, low cost, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, tunable porosity, low temperature processing, etc. have attracted much interest for biosensing application. 11 We report results of studies relating to sol-gel derived nano-ZnO film deposited onto indium-tin-oxide ͑ITO͒ substrate for application to cholesterol sensor.Zinc acetate hydrate ͑1 g͒ is dissolved in 20 ml ethanol at 25°C. Then 5 ml ͑1M͒ solution of ammonium hydroxide is added drop wise to this solution with constant stirring for 1h at 25°C to maintain pH 10. A white precipitate of Zn͑OH͒ 2 obtained is washed several times with de-ionized water until neutral pH is reached. Subsequently, dilute HNO 3 ͑1...