Bis(phenylsulfinyl)methane

Two independent molecules comprise the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C13H12O2S2, which differ in terms of minor variations in the relative orientations of the benzene rings [the O–S–C–C torsion angles for the first independent molecule are −6.66 (17) and −12.88 (19)° compared with −21.70 (18) and 4.83 (16)° for the second molecule]. Supramolecular chains sustained by C—H⋯O contacts and aligned along the a axis are found in the crystal structure. These are held in place in the three dimensional structure by C—H⋯π interactions.

Two independent molecules comprise the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C 13 H 12 O 2 S 2 , which differ in terms of minor variations in the relative orientations of the benzene rings [the O-S-C-C torsion angles for the first independent molecule are À6.66 (17) and À12.88 (19) compared with À21.70 (18) and 4.83 (16) for the second molecule]. Supramolecular chains sustained by C-HÁ Á ÁO contacts and aligned along the a axis are found in the crystal structure. These are held in place in the three dimensional structure by C-HÁ Á Á interactions.
The use of the EPSRC X-ray crystallographic service at the University of Southampton, England and the valuable assistance of the staff there is gratefully acknowledged. JLW acknowledges support from CAPES and FAPEMIG (Brazil). Otwinowski, Z. & Minor, W. (1997)
The crystal packing comprises supramolecular chains of molecules aligned along the a axis. These are sustained by C-H···O interactions as well as C-H···S and C18-H···π contacts, Fig. 4 and Table 1. Chains stack in the crystal structure being held together by C-H···π contacts, Fig. 5.

Refinement
The C-bound H atoms were geometrically placed (C-H = 0.95-0.99 Å) and refined as riding with U iso (H) = 1.2U eq (C). Fig. 1. The molecular structure of the first independent molecule in (I) showing the atom-labelling scheme and displacement ellipsoids at the 50% probability level.

Special details
Geometry. All s.u.'s (except the s.u. in the dihedral angle between two l.s. planes) are estimated using the full covariance matrix. The Refinement. Refinement of F 2 against ALL reflections. The weighted R-factor wR and goodness of fit S are based on F 2 , conventional R-factors R are based on F, with F set to zero for negative F 2 . The threshold expression of F 2 > 2σ(F 2 ) is used only for calculating Rfactors(gt) etc. and is not relevant to the choice of reflections for refinement. R-factors based on F 2 are statistically about twice as large as those based on F, and R-factors based on ALL data will be even larger.