A new near-infrared fluorophore 2-(2-Aminoethyl) pyridine-tricarbocyanine (1) was rationally designed and synthe-sized as a fluorescent probe for detection of Cu²⁺ with high selectivity. The response of Probe 1 is based on the fluorescence quenching upon binding to Cu²⁺. The sensing performance of the proposed Cu²⁺-sensitive Probe 1 was then investigated. The probe can be applied to the quantification detection of Cu²⁺ with a linear concentration range covering from 4.8 × 10^-7 to 1.6 × 10^-4 mol/L and a detection limit of 9.3 × 10^-8 mol/L. The experimental results showed that the response of 1 to Cu²⁺ was independent of pH in medium condition (pH 6.0-8.0), and exhibited excellent selectivity towards Cu²⁺ over other common metal cations.