Chelating water-soluble bichromophoric compounds were designed by linking two naphthalene rings with an ethylenediaminetetraacetate (edta) chain through amide linkages, and characterized by fluorescence and NMR spectroscopies: the bichromophores studied were 1,4-bis(methylenecarboxy)-1,4-bis(N-1-naphthylacetamide)-1,4-diazabutane, abbreviated as (edta1nap)H 2 , and the corresponding 2-naphthylacetamide, abbreviated as (edta2nap)H 2 . Completely deprotonated species M 22 that formed in basic solution exhibited an intense emission from intramolecular excimer at 440 nm for (edta1nap) 22 and 404 nm for (edta2nap) 22 , while emission from monomeric naphthyl group was comparatively very weak. Geometry optimization based on Density Functional Theory showed that two naphthyl groups in an M 22 molecule faced each other in such a way that an intramolecular excimer was readily formed by light excitation. Protonation on amino nitrogen affected monomer-excimer interconversion in different modes for the two compounds: the excimer emission was strengthened in the resulting (edta1nap)H 2 , but was weakened in (edta2nap)H 2 . Upon coordination with Zn 21 , the excimer band of (edta1nap) 22 as well as (edta2nap) 22 was strengthened in a linear manner with [Zn]/[L]; concurrently monomer emission was weakened. Coordination of (edta2nap) 22 with Cd 21 resulted in a large decrease in the excimer emission, while the emission of (edta1nap) 22 was almost unchanged. The formation of intramolecular excimer, which is highly sensitive to protonation and complexation, is due to the strictly defined molecular conformation.