A novel cyano-terminated zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc-CN) exhibiting visible near infrared (vis-NIR) emitting around 690 nm in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent has been synthesized. Furthermore, the peripheral cyano groups of newly synthesized zinc phthalocyanine were hydrolyzed in strong basic solution, leading to water soluble carboxylated zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc-COOH) with completely quenched fluorescence in aqueous solution. Interestingly, we found that the NIR fluorescence of aqueous ZnPc-COOH was dramatically recovered in the presence of gold nanorods (Au NR), which was due to the alternation of ZnPc-COOH molecules self-assembling via electrostatic interaction between cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) on the surface of Au NR and peripheral carboxyl of ZnPc-COOH. In addition, ZnPc-COOH/Au NR conjugates demonstrated an improved singlet oxygen generation, which could be served as potential bioimaging probe and photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.