The crystal structures of racemic bis [α-(9-anthryl)]
ether and its meso form have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods at 295 K, being refined by least squares to residuals of 0.053 and 0.041 for 1868 and 3568 independent 'observed' reflections respectively. Crystals of the racemate are orthorhombic, Pcab, a 23.07(1), b 19.85(2), c 10.241(8) Ǻ, Z 8. Crystals of the meso form are triclinic, Pī , a 19.032(12), b 14.207(11), c 9.451(8) Ǻ, α 79.46(6), β 89.68(6), γ 68.97(5)°, Z 4. In the racemate , the dihedral angle between the methyl groups along the ether bonds is 12°, and the short axes of the anthracene moieties lie at an angle of about 120°. In the meso compound, for the two molecules the dihedral angles between the methyl groups along the ether bonds are 90 and 93°, the angle between the two anthracene moieties is 90°, and the interplanar angles between the partly overlapping aromatic systems are 46 and 43°.
