Cavitation regulated sonochemical synthesis of flexible self-supported CuO@PDA/CC electrode for highly sensitive glucose sensor

•CuO@PDA/CC electrode is synthesized via a facile sonochemical approach.•Sonopolymerized PDA is utilized to regulate the transient cavitation intensity for optimizing the size and distribution of CuO NPs.•The interfacial binding of CuO@PDA NPs and CC is enhanced via the strong chelating ability between Cu2+ and PDA.•The flexible glucose sensor shows high sensitivity of 1.843 μA cm−2 mM−1 in a wide linear range up to 4.985 mM and excellent stability.