2-Chloro-4-nitro-1H-imidazole.

The mol-ecule of the title compound, C(3)H(2)ClN(3)O(2), is almost planar; the dihedral angle between the imidazole ring and the nitro group is 1.7 (2)°. In the crystal structure, pairs of inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link inversion-related mol-ecules into dimers, generating R(2) (2)(10) ring motifs. The dimers are inter-connected into two-dimensional networks parallel to (102) via inter-molecular N-H⋯N hydrogen bonds. Further stabilization is provided by short inter-molecular Cl⋯O inter-actions [3.142 (2) and 3.1475 (19) Å].