Tetrathiourea cadmium tetrathiocyanato zincate (TCTZ) has been synthesised by the chemical reaction method. The solubility of the synthesised material was determined in water, acetone and water-acetone mixed solvents. Based on the solubility studies, the single crystals of TCTZ were grown from the 3:1 water-acetone mixed solvent by the solvent evaporation method. The crystallinity of the grown crystals was proved from the powder XRD data. TCTZ was found to crystallise in tetragonal symmetry with non-centrosymmetric space group (I) over bar4. The presence of functional group and the coordination of the metal with the ligands were proved from the FTIR studies. The compound exhibits good physicochemical stability up to 182 degrees C. The UV transparency cut off wavelength of TCTZ was found to be 290 nm and the complex is transparent (69%) over the entire range of visible region showing that it is a good candidate for NLO applications. The growth feature of the TCTZ single crystals was observed by etching studies, which reveals the formation of layer growth pattern. The mechanical property of the crystal was estimated by Vickers hardness test. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.