title: Dimethyl 9-benzyl-3-cyano-9H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]benzimidazole-1,2-dicarboxyl-ate.
abstract: The title compound, C(22)H(17)N(3)O(4), was prepared through 1,3-dipolar cyclo-addition: the dihedral angle between the benzimidazole and benzene rings is 80.93 (6)°. The crystal structure is stabilized by weak π-π inter-actions between the planar pyrrolobenzimidazole rings (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0293 Å) of neighbouring mol-ecules, forming chains along the c axis. The perpendicular distance is 3.47 (2) Å and the centroid-centroid distances are in the range of 3.590 (3)-3.944 (3) Å.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei-Jin
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Yu-Liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Bing-Xiang
authors.initials: BX
authors.lastname: Wang