Bismuth has been attracting research interest in recent decades due to its unique properties. Especially, there is a great difference for bismuth between its surface and bulk material properties in which the surfaces are much better metals than the bulk. A ultrathin layer of bismuth was adsorbed onto platinum electrode surface by simple self-assembly. Compared with bare platinum electrode, two greatly increased oxidation peaks were observed at negative and positive potential area with the obtained Bi-III-Pt electrode, where Bi-0 or Bi-III tends to adsorb more -OH which is shared by the below adjacent platinum atom to form a structure of Pt-OH with high electrocatalytical activity. The Bi-III-Pt electrode gives high sensitivity and excellent linearship of non-enzymatic glucose sensing, showing potential application for fuel cell, electrocatalysis and electroanalysis. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.