Novel near-infrared luminescent gold nanoparticles (NIRL-AuNPs) were synthesized by asimple, rapid and one-pot procedure. The driving force for the formation of theseNIRL-AuNPs was attributed to the heat-assisted reduction of a gold(I)–thiol complex.These gold nanoparticles were characterized by TEM, DLS, FT-IR and XPS. Luminescencestudies indicated that these NIRL-AuNPs exhibited strong emission with peak maximumat 810 nm, microsecond-range photoluminescence lifetime, large Stokes shifts (>400 nm) and stabilities towards photobleaching and chemical oxidation. The sensing application forCu2 + ions of these NIRL-AuNPs was demonstrated. These as-synthesized gold nanoparticles willprovide a new NIRL nanomaterial for in vitro and in vivo applications.