In the present work, nanostructured cupric oxide (CuO) thin films have been successfully deposited on glass substrates by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique at room temperature. The influence of complexing agent as triethanolamine (TEA) on the structural, morphological, optical and electrical characteristics of nanocrystalline CuO thin films have been examined in detail. Structural studies confirm that all the films were polycrystalline nature having a monoclinic crystalline form and displayed (1¯11) and (111) preferential orientations. The estimated crystallite values ranged from 17.47 to 19.95 nm. The surface morphology of CuO thin films was examined through scanning electron microscopy and materials microscope studies. Surface studies revealed that homogeneously distributed CuO nanostructures on the film surfaces. The optical studies showed that band gap energy values of the CuO thin films were increased from 1.33 to 2.00 eV as a function of increasing TEA concentration. Meanwhile, the average transmittance of all the films had increased from 2.5 to 42.5% with the increasing TEA concentration. FTIR studies identified the formation of single phase CuO and chemical bonding of the complexing agent. The resistivity value of CuO thin film synthesized without TEA was 3.74 × 10 5 Ω cm and the resistivity consequently increased to 509 × 10 5 Ω cm with TEA concentration of 1.0 M%. A high figure of merit (786 × 10 −12 Ω −1 ) was obtained for complexing agent concentration of 0.25 M%.