Crystal structure and spectroscopic properties of (E)-1,3-dimethyl-2-[3-(4-nitrophenyl)triaz-2-enylidene]-2,3-dihydro-1H-imidazole

The title compound (E)-1,3-dimethyl-2-[3-(4-nitro-phen-yl)triaz-2-enyl-idene]-2,3-di-hydro-1H-imidazole, C11H12N6O2, has monoclinic (C2/c) symmetry at 100 K. This triazene derivative was synthesized by the coupling reaction of 1,3-di-methyl-imidazolium iodide with 1-azido-4-nitro benzene in the presence of sodium hydride (60% in mineral oil) and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, IR, mass spectrometry, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The mol-ecule consists of six-membered and five-membered rings, which are connected by a triazene moiety (-N=N-N-). In the solid-state, the mol-ecule is found to be planar due to conjugation throughout the mol-ecule. The extended structure shows two layers of mol-ecules, which present weak inter-molecular inter-actions that facilitate the stacked arrangement of the mol-ecules forming the extended structure. Furthermore, there are several weak pseudo-cyclical inter-actions between the nitro oxygen atoms and symmetry-adjacent H atoms, which help to arrange the mol-ecules.