Phenol is an important commodity chemical and the catalytic conversion of benzene to phenol by molecular oxygen with minimum waste production is of high significance from an academic as well as industrial point of view. We have developed a facile synthesis method for the preparation of 2-8 nm Cu (II) oxide nanoparticles supported on CuCr 2 O 4 spinel nanoparticles (with size ~55 nm).Detailed characterization of the material was carried out by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, FTIR, TGA, TPR, BET surface area, XANES and ICP-AES. XRD and XPS analyses revealed that the main phase is CuCr 2 O 4 spinel, where small amount of CuO is dispersed on it. The catalyst was highly active for selective oxidation of benzene to phenol with air as oxidant. The influence of reaction parameters was investigated in detail. The high catalytic performance of the catalyst is due to ultrasmall size of Cu (II) oxide nanoparticle and the strong synergy between ultrasmall Cu(II) oxide and CuCr 2 O 4 spinel nanoparticles that plays pivotal role in activating air to generate active oxygen species which accomplishes benzene to phenol conversion (36%) with very high selectivity (78%) in a continuous process.