2-(2-Hydroxyfluorophenyl)benzoxazole having an imidazole moiety 1 was synthesized by the two step reactions starting from 2-(pentafluorophenyl)benzoxazole. Protonation at the 3-imidazole nitrogen atom of 1 enhances the green emission around 500 nm, where the positive character caused by the protonation is inductively communicated to the hydroxy group, to recover its intramolecular hydrogen bonding