In this thesis research, the fabrication and characterization of copper-containing nanostructures were studied. Thermal behavior of copper nanolayers on silica layers that were grown on silicon wafer was explored in oxygen environments of different pressures. The studies indicated that the migration ability of copper on silica surface was controlled by the oxygen pressure. Self-organization of copper occurred to form line structures of multiple strips in a specific oxygen pressure range. The line structures were mainly constituted by cuprous oxide and silica. The line orientation of the produced structures was related to the line defects formed from termination of stacking faults and dislocations at the wafer surface. The density of the line structures depended on the thickness of both the copper and the silica nanolayers. The electrochemical application of the line-structured copper based film was demonstrated that the line-structured copper based film was an ultra-microelectrode. In addition, rhomboid-like copper glycolate were fabricated via a polyol-mediated synthesis. A relatively small amount of PEG in ethylene glycol medium was able to tune the product shape while the composition of product remained unchanged. The nanoplates composed of copper glycolate, which had a chemical formula of [Cu-OCH2CH2O]. Copper glycolate nanoplates could be easily converted to copper, copper oxide, and copper hydroxide nanostructures. A platinum electrode coated with the synthesized copper glycolate nanoplates exhibited enhanced glucose sensitivity, with an excellent linearity with glucose concentration, as compared to that of a platinum electrode coated with the commercial cupric oxide particles of size ~50 nm.