Methodology of nucleophilic substitution of hydrogen (SNH) was first applied for the direct modification of nonaromatic 2H-imidazoles to afford novel polyfluoroarylated azaheterocycles. Scope, tolerance for these transition-metal-free C-H/C-Li coupling reactions, and photophysical properties for the novel 4-(perfluorophenyl)-5-aryl-2H-imidazoles were comprehensively studied. In particular, some of the obtained perfluoroaryl-substituted 2H-imidazoles were found to be of particular interest as promising push-pull fluorophore systems in the design of fluorometric sensor materials due to the effect of intramolecular charge transfer.