A new thiotetrazole compound, 4‐((1‐phenyl‐1H‐tetrazol‐5‐ylthio)methyl) benzoic acid (1), has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, 1H and 13C NMR, ESI‐MS, FT‐IR, UV–vis, fluorescence spectra, and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis. The structural analysis reveals that compound 1 adopts a nonplanar geometric structure and exhibits an extensive but not uniform π delocalization with all members of the tetrazolyl ring and the exocyclic sulfur atom. A density functional theory (DFT) calculation at B3LYP/6‐31G** level of theory was performed to elucidate the structure of this thiotetrazole system. And the time‐dependent DFT (TD‐DFT) calculations of absorption spectra reveal two electron‐transition bands derived from the contribution of π → π* transitions, which are in agreement with experimental results. Moreover, compound 1 exhibits a blue‐light emission (λem = 441 nm) in the solid state at room temperature. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 23:435–443, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/hc.21034