A new macrocyclic heterobinuclear Cu(II)-Zn(II) complex was synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, ES-MS, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Five-coordinate geometry for the new complex is proposed. The copper horizontal ellipsis zinc distance bridged by two phenolic oxygens and a acetate ligand is 2.9508 angstrom. The phosphate ester hydrolysis activity and the DNA binding ability of the complex were studied. The results showed that the present complex has an efficient catalytic activity of phosphoester bond cleavage. The catalytic rate constant k(cat) for the hydrolys...