2-[(4-Bromo-phen-yl)sulfan-yl]-2-meth-oxy-1-phenyl-ethan-1-one: crystal structure, Hirshfeld surface analysis and computational chemistry

The title compound, C15H13BrO2S, comprises three different substituents bound to a central (and chiral) methine-C atom, i.e. (4-bromo-phen-yl)sulfanyl, benzaldehyde and meth-oxy residues: crystal symmetry generates a racemic mixture. A twist in the mol-ecule is evident about the methine-C-C(carbon-yl) bond as evidenced by the O-C-C-O torsion angle of -20.8 (7)°. The dihedral angle between the bromo-benzene and phenyl rings is 43.2 (2)°, with the former disposed to lie over the oxygen atoms. The most prominent feature of the packing is the formation of helical supra-molecular chains as a result of methyl- and methine-C-H⋯O(carbon-yl) inter-actions. The chains assemble into a three-dimensional architecture without directional inter-actions between them. The nature of the weak points of contacts has been probed by a combination of Hirshfeld surface analysis, non-covalent inter-action plots and inter-action energy calculations. These point to the importance of weaker H⋯H and C-H⋯C inter-actions in the consolidation of the structure.