Rare earth Ce-doped ZnO nanorods were successfully synthesized via the hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that Ce ions were successfully doped into ZnO lattice and resulted in smaller nanorods and larger crystallite size, which was advantageous for the improvement of electrocatalytic performance. A highly sensitive and selective sensor for the determination of bisphenol A (BPA) has been strategically designed based on the Ce-doped ZnO nanorods. Furthermore, the electrochemical performances of the Ce-doped ZnO modified CPE (Ce-doped ZnO/CPE) are studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and the electrochemical responses are significantly improved. The oxidation peak currents of BPA are in good linear relationship to its concentrations in the ranges of 0.5 similar to 3.2 mu M and 3.2 similar to 62.0 mu M and the detection limit for BPA is 0.018 mu M, indicating that the modified electrode has good electrocatalytic effect for BPA. Therefore, this novelly proposed sensor might have great potential value in the determination of the environmental hormone pollutants and could be extended to biomedical field, chemical engineering and food industry in the near future. (c) 2018 The Electrochemical Society.