One new benzimidazole derivative copper（II） complex 1（C10H6Cu N2, Mr = 217.71） has been synthesized and characterized by FT-IR and X-ray single-crystal diffraction. It crystallizes in orthorhombic, space group Pbcn with a = 17.417（2）, b = 8.9963（8）, c = 11.3432（9） ？, V = 1777.3（3） ？3, Z = 8, μ（Mo Kα） = 2.403, F（000） = 872, Dc = 1.627 g/cm3. The final R = 0.0598 for 1153 observed reflections with I 〉 2σ（I） and w R = 0.17 for all data. The in vitro anti-cancer activities of 1, Cu Cl2 and the benzimidazole ligand L were investigated using human cervical（Hela） and hepatocellular carcinoma（Hep-G2） cancer cell lines. The copper（II） complex can greatly inhibit the cell proliferation and show stronger cytotoxic activities against the tested cancer cell lines than both the ligand and copper（II） salt.
