A new cadmium(II) coordination polymer with 3,4-thiophe- nedicarboxylic acid (H(2)tdc) and 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane (bpa) has been prepared by hydrothermal synthesis and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, IR, and EA. Compound {[Cd(tdc)(bpa)(H2O)]2H(2)O}(n) (1), is monoclinic, space group C2/c with a = 19.222(9), b = 16.433(8), c = 13.168(6) angstrom, = 96.429(2)degrees, V = 4133 (3) angstrom(3), Z = 8, M-r = 520.82, D-c = 1.674g/cm(3), F(000) = 2096, and = 1.20cm(-1). The final refinement gave R = 0.0250 and wR = 0.0657 for 3325 reflections with I > 2 sigma(I). X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the title compound exhibits a 4-connected three-dimensional framework with irl topology. Furthermore, the luminescent property of 1 is investigated, which demonstrates that the title compound may be a good candidate as a photoactive material.