A novel blue fluorescent first generation stilbenoid dendrimer built on the 1,3,5-benzene core and endowed with a periphery of hexyloxy branches has been synthesized and is proposed as an active layer for organic light-emitting diodes processed by spin coating. In this work, we have obtained homogeneous thin films with blue emission (2.8 eV) by spin coating instead of the usual evaporation method used for low-weight molecular materials. The absorption and emission spectra of the films are analyzed and compared to that of the molecule. The obtained results show the dependence of the absorption and emission properties on the morphology and the dendrimer aggregation in the film. The effect of inter-dendrimer interactions leads to a broadening of the absorption bands and to a reduction of the threshold as the aggregation increases. The most efficient solid-state emission is for the films obtained from chloroform as solvent in the precursor solution. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.