A newly synthesized metal-organic co-ordination compound Dichloridobis (1-ethyl-2,6-dimethylpyridinium-4-olate-kappa O) zinc(II) (EDMPZC) is characterized by FTIR to confirm the molecular structure. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system with the centrosymmetric space group C2/c and the unit cell parameters are determined from the single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Optical energy band gap is found to be 3.5 eV by UV-Visible absorption studies. The third order nonlinear optical properties were investigated by open-aperture Z-scan measurements using Nd:YAG laser (532 nm, 5 ns). Two-photon absorption and reverse saturable absorption mechanisms at the excitation wavelength are found to cause the observed optical limiting behavior. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.