organic compounds
Acta Crystallographica Section C
Crystal Structure
benzimidazoles bearing the 4-chlorophenyl or quinolin-2-one
pharmacophores at position 2, which exhibit high activity
Communications
´
against a range of cancer cell lines (Abonıa et al., 2011). As
ISSN 0108-2701
part of our current synthetic programme aimed at the devel-
opment of potential antitumour agents, we have now prepared
the benzimidazole derivative, (II), using a two-step synthesis
involving the in situ reduction of the nitroaniline precursor,
(I), followed by cyclocondensation with 4-chlorobenzaldehyde.
Hydrogen-bonded sheet structures in
methyl 4-(4-chloroanilino)-3-nitro-
benzoate and methyl 1-benzyl-2-(4-
chlorophenyl)-1H-benzimidazole-5-
carboxylate
a
a
b
´
´
Edwar Cortes, Rodrigo Abonıa, Justo Cobo and
Christopher Glidewellc*
a
´
Departamento de Quımica, Universidad de Valle, AA 25360 Cali, Colombia,
b
´
´
´
´
Departamento de Quımica Inorganica y Organica, Universidad de Jaen, 23071
Jaen, Spain, and cSchool of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9ST,
´
Scotland
Received 3 December 2012
Accepted 3 December 2012
Online 13 December 2012
In methyl 4-(4-chloroanilino)-3-nitrobenzoate, C14H11ClN2O4,
(I), there is an intramolecular N—Hꢀ ꢀ ꢀO hydrogen bond and
the intramolecular distances provide evidence for electronic
polarization of the o-quinonoid type. The molecules are linked
into sheets built from N—Hꢀ ꢀ ꢀO, C—Hꢀ ꢀ ꢀO and C—
Hꢀ ꢀ ꢀꢀ(arene) hydrogen bonds, together with an aromatic
ꢀ–ꢀ stacking interaction. The molecules of methyl 1-benzyl-2-
(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-benzimidazole-5-carboxylate, C22H17Cl-
N2O2, (II), are also linked into sheets, this time by a
combination of C—Hꢀ ꢀ ꢀꢀ(arene) hydrogen bonds and
aromatic ꢀ–ꢀ stacking interactions.
Comment
We report here the molecular structures and the supra-
molecular assembly of the two title compounds, (I) (Fig. 1) and
(II) (Fig. 2). Benzimidazoles are compounds of wide interest
because of their diverse biological activities and clinical
applications (Ansari & Lal, 2009). They are regarded as a
promising class of bioactive heterocyclic compounds, exhi-
biting a wide range of biological properties such as antifungal,
antiparasitic and antiviral activity. They are also active as
analgesics, anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, antihistamines and
anti-inflammatory agents, and they show anticancer, anti-
hypertensive and anti-ulcer activity, as well as acting as
proton-pump inhibitors (Bansal & Silakari, 2012). Conse-
quently, substituted benzimidazoles have attracted interest,
especially since it has been reported that the influence of the
substitution at the 1-, 2- and 5-positions of the benzimidazole
framework is important for their pharmacological effects
(Kılcıgil & Altanlar, 2006). We have recently reported the
design of a four-step synthesis of novel 1,2,5-trisubstituted
Within the molecule of (I), the plane of the nitro group
makes a dihedral angle of only 9.4 (2)ꢁ with that of the adja-
cent aryl ring, and this may be associated with the presence of
an intramolecular N—Hꢀ ꢀ ꢀO hydrogen bond (Fig. 1 and
Table 2) which gives rise to an S(6) motif (Bernstein et al.,
1995). On the other hand, the two rings within the molecule
make a dihedral angle of 49.8 (2)ꢁ.
The bond lengths in the molecule of (I) provide evidence
for polarization of the electronic structure. Thus, the C12—C13
and C15—C16 bond lengths are significantly shorter than the
other C—C bond lengths in the C11–C16 ring (Table 1); the
C13—N31 bond is short for its type [mean value (Allen et al.,
˚
˚
1987) = 1.468 A, lower quartile value = 1.460 A], while the
C14—N41 bond is significantly shorter than the N41—C41
bond; and the N31—O31 and N31—O32 bonds are both long
˚
for their type (mean value = 1.217 A, upper quartile value =
˚
1.225 A). These observations, taken as a whole, indicate that
the polarized form, (Ia) (see Scheme), makes a significant
Acta Cryst. (2013). C69, 77–81
doi:10.1107/S0108270112049669
# 2013 International Union of Crystallography 77