Three simple and small donor-acceptor type conjugated moieties, namely (2Z, 2′Z)-3,3'-((hexylazanediyl)bis (4,1-phenylene))bis (2-(pyridin-2-yl)acrylonitrile) (DPA-PA-1), (2Z, 2′Z)-3,3'-((dodecylazanediyl)bis (4,1-phenylene))bis (2-(pyridin-2-yl)acrylonitrile) (DPA-PA-2), (2Z,2′Z)-3,3'-((allylazanediyl)bis (4,1-phenylene))bis (2-(pyridin-2-yl)acrylonitrile) DPA-PA-3 have been synthesized according to the Knoevenagel condensation. Here alkyl (hexyl, dodecyl, allyl) diphenylamine (DPA) moieties acts as an electron donor and pyridine-acetonitrile (PA) moiety acts as an electron acceptor. These moieties are recently showing great interest in optoelectronic applications. The structures of the DPA-PA-1-3 were confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The final products showed great solubility in common organic solvents such as toluene, tetrahydrofuran, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, chloroform etc due to the alkyl chains. The absorption maximum of DPA-PA-1-3 appeared at 440, 433, 447 nm in chloroform solution. The optical band gaps are 2.33, 2.29, and 2.25 eV calculated from thin film absorption edges. The photoluminescence spectra of three molecules were exhibited a maximum peak at 511, 513, 529 nm with greenish fluorescence in chloroform solution and 553, 541, 554 nm as in thin film state. DPA-PA-1-3 showed a delay fluorescence decay time (τ1) of 35, 16 and 14 μs respectively. The lower electrochemical band gaps 1.90 and 1.80 eV was observed by cyclic voltammetry. The morphological images were indicated that spherical shaped particles were observed with lower surface roughness. These types of low bandgap materials have much attention for their various potential applications in optoelectronic devices. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.