Intermolecular interactions in a phenol-substituted benzimidazole

Hydrogen bonding plays an important role in the design of solid-state structures and gels with desirable properties. 1-(4-Hydroxybenzyl)-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-5,6-dimethyl-1H-benzimidazole was isolated as the acetone disolvate, C22H20N2O2·2C3H6O. O—H...N hydrogen bonding between benzimidazole molecules results in chains parallel to [010]. One of the acetone solvate molecules participates in O—H...O hydrogen bonding with the benzimidazole derivative. C—H...π interactions are observed in the extended structure. Hirshfeld surface analysis was used to explore the intermolecular interactions and density functional theory was used to estimate the strength of the hydrogen bonds