Piperidine mediated a robust, efficient, and selective one-pot synthesis of previously inaccessible and highly fluorescent 3,5-disubstituted 2,6-dicyanoanilines. This was achieved via the domino carboannulation of α-enolicdithioesters with malononitrile by dehydrative C
O/C
S bond functionalization. It is presumed that the domino sequence includes base promoted nucleophilic addition, Knoevenagel condensation and ANRORC (addition of nucleophile/ring opening/ring closure) steps. The screening for optical properties identified a strong blue emission with high fluorescence quantum yields.