Three-component systems, 1a-c and 2a, b, comprising 1, 8-naphthalimide and 4-methoxy-1, 8-naphthalimide as fluorophore, a dimethylamino moiety as guest binding site and a polymethylene group as spacer, have been synthesized and the fluorescence behavior of these systems has been studied in the absence and in the presence of the salts of several transition metal ions. The systems are found to be very weakly fluorescent compared to ...