In this work, we report our investigations on the film-forming properties as well as the optical and electroluminescent characterisations of a series of lateral-substituted soluble oligo(phenylenevinylenes) of various conjugation length. Preliminary investigations show that these materials are potential candidates for use in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). Two types of OLEDs were fabricated: single layer (SL) and single heterostructure (SHS), with poly(p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV) as hole transporting layer. Our best results were obtained with single layer device emitting green light with a luminance of 0.18 cd m(-2) and 0.24 cd m(-2) at a driving voltage of 10 V. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.