The photophysical properties of N-butyl-4-hydroxyl-1, 8-naphthalimide (BOH) and N-(morpholinoethyl)-4-hydroxy-1, 8-naphthalimide (MOH) in various solvents are presented and the density functional theory (DFT) / time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods at the B3LYP/TZVP theoretical level are adopted to investigate the UV-visible absorption and emission data. An efficient intermolecular excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) reaction occurs for both compounds in DMSO, methanol and water. In aqueous solution, both BOH and MOH can be used as ratiometric pH probes and perform as strong photoacids with pKa* = −2.2, −2.4, respectively. Most interestingly, in the steady-state fluorescence spectra of BOH and MOH in concentrated HCl, an unexpected blue-shifted band is observed and assumed to originate from the contact ion pair (CIP) formed by hydronium ion and the anionic form of the photoacid resulted from ESPT. Theoretical calculations are used to simulate the CIP in the case of BOH, which afford reasonable results compared with the experimental data. Keywords: Naphthalimide Excited-state proton transfer Photoacid Contact ion pair Time-dependent density functional theory 1. Introduction Upon photoexcitation, aromatic alcohols (ROH) such as naphthols, hydroxyquinolines, and hydroxypyrenes may increase the acidity dramatically. Research on this photoinduced deprotonation is first described by Fὅrster in 1949 [1] and still attracting intensive attention in the field of biology and physical chemistry [2-11]. The Eigen-Weller model for proton transfer is used to depict this process, where the initial short-range proton transfer forms a contact ion pair (CIP) as a reaction intermediate followed by diffusion controlled separation of the ions [12-13]. © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/Recently, Brouwer and coworkers synthesized and characterized some hydroxy-substituted 1, 8-naphthalimide derived "super" photoacids, where the hydroxyl group is located at the 3 or 6 position of the naphthalimide ring [6,14]. However, for 4-hydroxyl-1, 8-naphthalimide derivatives, which are extensively used for designing turn-on or rationmetric fluorescent indicators for bioimaging [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], the photophysical properties and the excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) reactions are rarely studied [30].In this contribution, the steady-state absorption and emission spectra of two 4-hydroxyl-1, 8-naphthalimide derivatives (BOH and MOH, Scheme 1) in organic solvents and water with various pH values are recorded. The density functional theory (DFT) / time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods at B3LYP/TZVP theoretical level are adopted to investigate the UV-visible absorption and emission data. In the study of the ESPT of 5-cyano-2-naphthol in sub-and supercritical water, Kobayashi and coworkers [31] found that the band of their excited neutral (ROH*) and anionic (RO − *) species...