Hydroquinone(HQ) was mainly used in the industrial field as a stabilizing agent and antioxygen. The residue of hydroquinone in industrial wastewater was seriously harmful to human body and environment. Therefore, it is of great significance to establish a simple and accurate method for the detection of hydroquinone for food safety and environmental monitoring. In this paper, a nano-zinc oxide-high purity graphite/glass carbon (ZnO-C/GC) composite electrochemical sensor was prepared. The experimental materials were simple and low cost. The structural characteristics, surface characteristics and conductivity of nano-ZnO-C composites material were analyzed by atomic force microscope (AFM), field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electrochemical AC impedance (EIS). Hydroquinone by cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used to realize the detection of hydroquinone by nano-ZnO-C/GC composite electrochemical sensor. The electrocatalytic mechanism of hydroquinone was explored. The electrochemical sensor has good stability and accuracy for the detection of hydroquinone, a wide linear range, and a detection limit of 1.0 × 10-8 mol/L.