Crystal structure of ethyl 2-[2-(4-methyl-benzo-yl)-5-p-tolyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl]acetate.

In the title compound, C22H22N2O3, the plane of the five-membered ring is oriented at dihedral angles of 45.4 (1) and 52.5 (1)° to the phenyl rings. Furthermore, this ring makes an angle of 85.2 (2)° with the plane of the ethyl acetate substituent. The mol-ecular structure is affected by an intra-molecular C-H⋯O hydrogen bond between an H atom from the p-tolyl group and the carbonyl O atom of the acetate. The methyl group of the ethyl acetate residue is disordered over two sites with equal occupancies. The crystal structure features inter-molecular C-H⋯O and C-H⋯N inter-actions. One of the C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds forms a C(5) chain motif extending along the a axis. In addition, C-H⋯N contacts form inversion dimers with R 2 (2)(12) ring motifs, linking the imidazole ring system to the benzene ring of the p-tolyl substituent.