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In the present study, an attempt has been made to design a solar light driven N-rGO-ZnO- CoPc(COOH) 8 nanocomposite for the degradation of cyanide. The morphological and structural characterization of the synthesized nanocomposite was performed by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, UV-vis DRS, FESEM, TEM, EDS, PL spectra and BET surface area. The results revealed that almost 91% degradation and 86% toxicity removal occurred at 25 mgL -1 of initial cyanide concentration by the N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH) 8 nanocomposite under illumination of solar light within 120 min. Analysis of free radicals reveals that the generation of OH . radicals was the predominant species in the photocatalytic degradation process. The cyanide degradation follows pseudo-first order kinetics. The estimated apparent rate constant (K app ) of the above nanocomposite was 3 times higher than that of the ZnO photocatalyst alone together with a very good recycle activities. This might be due to the application of metallpthalocyanine photosensitizer CoPc(COOH) 8 which enhances the rate of visible light absorption efficiency and activates the higher band gap ZnO photocatalyst under visible light. In addition, the presence of residual oxygen in N-rGO also promotes nucleation and anchor sites for interfacial contact between ZnO and N-rGO for effective charge transfer. Further, the N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH) 8 photocatalytic system showed significant antibacterial activities against mixed culture systems. Therefore, the N-rGO-ZnO-CoPc(COOH) 8 nanocomposite may be an alternative solar light driven photocatalyst system for the removal of cyanide from the wastewater along with its strong disinfectant activities., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)