The effect of methylation on the excited state dynamics of aminouracils

► A combination of femtosecond fluorescence experiments and TD-DFT calculations. ► The fluorescence decays of the aminouracils are much longer than that of uracil. ► The excited state deactivation of 5-aminouracil takes only a few picoseconds. ► For 5-dimethylaminouracil, a long-lived charge transfer state is formed.