(Z)-1-(3-Nitrophenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)ethene

In the molecule of the title compound, C14H10N2O4, the dihedral angle formed by the benzene rings is 53.66 (5)°. In the crystal structure, molecules are linked into chains parallel to the [01] direction by intermolecular C—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding interactions.

In the molecule of the title compound, C 14 H 10 N 2 O 4 , the dihedral angle formed by the benzene rings is 53.66 (5) . In the crystal structure, molecules are linked into chains parallel to the [011] direction by intermolecular C-HÁ Á ÁO hydrogenbonding interactions.

Comment
Recently, stilbene derivatives have attracted considerable attention from chemists and biologists because of their non-linear optical properties (Soto Bustmante et al., 1995;Papper & Likhtenshtein, 2001) and biological activities (Boonlaksiri et al., 2000). The crystal structure of the related isomer (Z)-1,2-bis(4-nitrophenyl)ethene has been previously reported by our group (Chen & Cao, 2007). We report here the crystal structure of the title compound (Fig. 1), a cis-stilbene derivative.
They are larger than the idealized value of 120° expected for sp 2 hybrid orbitals due to the comparatively strong stereo hindrance between the two aryl groups. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 53.66 (5)°. The nitro groups at C1 and C11 are slightly twisted out of the plane of the attached benzene rings forming dihedral angles of 7.92 (14) and 9.22 (10)°, respectively. In the crystal structure ( Fig. 2), there is non-classical intermolecular C-H···O hydrogen bond (Table 1) linking molecules into chains running parallel to the [0 -1 1] direction.

Refinement
The hydrogen atoms were generated geometrically and refined using a riding model, with C-H = 0.93 Å and U iso (H) = 1.2 U eq (C).
supplementary materials sup-2 Figures Fig. 1. The molecular structure of the title compound with the atom-numbering scheme and displacement ellipsoids drawn at the 30% probability level.