A series of hetero-ring-expanded purine analogs are designed and their structural, electronic and excited-state properties are investigated by DFT calculations. The results indicate that the designed analogs can form stable base pairs with natural counterparts. Compared with natural ones, these size-expanded analogs and corresponding base pairs have smaller ionization potentials and HOMO-LUMO gaps. Furthermore, the A-analogs have ionization potentials even lower than natural G. Finally, the electronic absorption spectra are calculated and the nature of the low-lying excited states is discussed. These observations imply their promising applications as molecular wires and new DNA motifs. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.