Water-soluble AgInS2 (AIS) nanociystals (NCs) have been synthesized for the first time in the presence of GSH as capping ligand in aqueous media at low temperature of 95 degrees C. The investigations on the effects of various experimental variables including pH value, GSH/In, In/Ag, and In/S ratios on the optical properties showed that the long time, pH of 8.5 and large GSH/In ratio could increase the intensity of the shorter wavelength (position not changed) emission, while the ratios of In/Ag and In/S could affect the emission wavelength and intensity as well as the intensity ratio of longer to shorter wavelength emission with the shorter wavelength emission tunable from 560 to 660 nm. After modifying with ZnS, the obtained ZnS-AgInS2 (ZAIS) NCs show both slightly blue-shifted stronger PL emission and higher quantum yield increasing to 5 fold. The obtained AIS and ZAIS NCs showed promising photocatalytic activities in the degradation of rhodamine B. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.