Easy separation of CuO nanocrystals with high catalytic activity

Gram-scale synthesis of monodisperse CuO nanocrystals with a size of ca. 8 nm was successfully achieved through a simple wet chemical method. Although the particles were nanoscale, they could be easily separated in several minutes without conventional time-consuming post-treatment processes. Moreover, the resultant CuO nanoparticles exhibit excellent performance for both reduction and degradation of p-nitrophenol in the presence of NaBH4 and H2O2, respectively.