An organometallic material of mercury cadmium chloride thiocyanate (MCCTC) was synthesized in water-methanol mixed solvent. Optically good grade crystal was grown by slow evaporation technique under optimized conditions. MCCTC belongs to rhombohedral system with R3c space group. The metal coordinations with (S with Hg and N with Cd) SCN- ion were confirmed in the sample by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic investigations. The transmission spectrum recorded from 200 to 2500 nm showed the UV transparency cutoff at 300 nm. MCCTC crystal exhibits a second-harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency which is nearly 17 times more than that of KDP. The microhardness study indicates the hard nature of the grown sample with a work hardening coefficient of 1.73. The thermal decomposition process was investigated by thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analyses. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.