Diethyl 4,4'-(ethane-1,2-diyldi-oxy)dibenzoate.

The title compound, C(20)H(22)O(6), was obtained by the reaction of ethyl 4-hy-droxy-benzoate with 1,2-dichloro-ethane in dimethyl-formamide. The mol-ecule lies around the crystallographic inversion center at (0,0,0), with the asymmetric unit consisting of one half of the mol-ecule. The two ethyl groups are in trans positions. The ethyl, carboxyl, aryl and O-CH(2) groups are coplanar with an r.m.s. deviation of 0.0208 (9) Å. The whole mol-ecule is planar with an r.m.s. deviation of 0.0238 (9) Å for the 19 atoms used in the calculation and 0.0071 (9) Å for the two aryl groups in the mol-ecule. A weak inter-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bond and a C-H⋯π inter-action help to consolidate the three-dimensional network.