Nowadays copper bioinspired catalysts are an attraction area of researcher’s interest. New copper complexes which mimic the active sites of copper metalloenzyme are widely studied.     Starting from 2-(2H-Benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-di-tert-pentyl-phenol ligand (L) were isolated four cooper(II) coordination compounds, namely [Cu(L)2] (1); [Cu(L)2(DMF)0.5] (2); [Cu(L)2(DMA)0.5] (3); [Cu(L)2(DMSO)0.33] (4) (Figure 1). These complexes were fully characterized by physical and physicochemical methods which are in good agreement with the X-ray analysis data. Complex 1 crystalizes in the triclinic centrosymmetric space group P-1 with a distorted tetrahedral coordination (Figure 1) while the isostructural complexes 2 and 3 crystalize in the monoclinic space group P21/c with pentacoordinated geometry.     The catalytic activity was tested in the reaction of veratryl alcohol oxidation performed in DMF at RT. To get some insight into the nature of the active species the mono-oxidized complex was generated and fully characterized.  By testing the nuclease activity of our mononuclear homoleptic complex (1) on SC pUC19 DNA in presence of different reducing (ascorbate; DTT) or oxidizing (H2O2) agents we observed an up to 20% cleavage in presence of our complex alone (500 μM) and 99% cleavage in presence of ascorbate agent and our complex (100 μM). This way we can control the ratio of cleaved nickedcircular and linear DNA by varying both the concentration of complex and the type of used agent.