A series of novel imidazole derivatives as blue light emitting materials were synthesized by heck coupling reaction and characterized with respect to their chemical, luminescence and thermal properties. The results were shown that the imidazole derivatives were strongly blue fluorescent (lambda = 455-487 nm) with high fluorescence quantum yields (Phi(f) = 0.28-0.63). All of these compounds have excellent thermal properties (382-423 degrees C) due to the molecular structure introduced by imidazole heterocycles, and the imidazole derivatives (M1 and M2) can be polymerized as monomers. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.