The intermediate bis(1H-benzimidazole-2-yl) methane was synthesized by using o-phenylenediamine and malonic acid as raw materials. Then a novel compound 1,1-bis(1H-benzoimididazole-yl)-1- tridecylene was synthesized via Knoevenagel reaction from lauric aldehyde and bis(1H-benzimidazole-2-yl) methane. The structure of the target compound was characterized by means of elemental analysis, FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra. The effect of conventional base catalysts on the yield of the title compound in Knoevenagel reaction was investigated, and the result indicated that piperidine has the best catalysis effect with a yield 76.33%. UV-Vis, solution fluorescence and solid fluorescence spectroscopy were used to study its photophysics properties. The results showed that the entitle compound has three UV absorption peaks at 243, 315 and 361nm in the dilute solution of ethanol, and a blue-purple fluorescence emission peak at 468nm excited by 360nm. Solid state thin film of the product also emitted a blue-purple fluorescence emission peak at 483.5 nm with a about 20nm red shift compared to the solution fluorescence. The fluorescence quantum yield of the title compound was 0.47. And contrastive tests showed that the fluorescent whitening effect of the title compound is equivalent to that of commercial fluorescent whitening agent VBL.