Crystal structure and DFT study of ()--[2-(1-indol-3-yl)eth-yl]-1-(anthracen-9-yl)methanimine.

The title compound, CHN, (), was synthesized from the condensation reaction of anthracene-9-carbaldehyde and tryptamine in dry ethanol. The indole ring system (r.m.s. deviation = 0.016 Å) makes a dihedral angle of 63.56 (8)° with the anthracene ring (r.m.s. deviation = 0.023 Å). There is a short intra-molecular C-H⋯N inter-action present, and a C-H⋯π inter-action involving the two ring systems. In the crystal, the indole H atom forms an inter-molecular N-H⋯π inter-action, linking mol-ecules to form chains along the -axis direction. There are also C-H⋯π inter-actions present, involving the central and terminal rings of the anthracene unit, linking the chains to form an overall two-dimensional layered structure, with the layers parallel to the plane. The density functional theory (DFT) optimized structure, at the B3LYP/6-311 G(d,p) level, is compared with the experimentally determined mol-ecular structure in the solid state.