In this work, we have prepared copper (II) oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) via reflux (CuO (R)) and hydrothermal (CuO (H)) methods. The electrical parameters like rectification ratio, ideality factor and barrier height were compared between two synthesized CuO NPs after fabricating Al/CuO/ITO schottky barrier diode (SBD). Under dark, rectification ratio increased by 37% for CuO (H) than CuO (R). In a similar manner, photoresponse also significantly improved by a huge 93%. Impedance Spectroscopy measurements establish that CuO (H) shows better charge transport and lower carrier recombination compared to CuO (R). The enhanced device performance of the hydrothermally synthesized CuO based schottky diode can be attributed to the reduction in lattice defect density and its good thin film properties. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.