The crystal structures of three disordered 2-substituted benzimidazole esters.

The crystal structures of three benzimidazole esters containing aryl or heterocyclic substituents at position 2 are reported, and all three exhibit disorder of mol­ecular entities. In ethyl 1-methyl-2-[4-(prop-2-yn­oxy)phen­yl]-1H-benzimidazole-5-carboxyl­ate, C20H18N2O3, (I), the prop-2-yn-1-oxyphenyl unit is disordered over two sets of atomic sites having effectively equal occupancies, 0.506 (5) and 0.494 (5). The propyl substituent in ethyl 1-propyl-2-(pyren-1-yl)-1H-benzimidazole-5-carboxyl­ate, C29H24N2O2, (II), is disordered over two sets of atomic sites having occupancies 0.601 (8) and 0.399 (8), and the ester unit in ethyl 1-methyl-2-(5-chloro-3-methyl-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-1H-benzimidazole-5-carboxyl­ate, C21H19ClN4O2 (III), is disordered over two sets of atomic sites having occupancies 0.645 (7) and 0.355 (7). In each of the C—H...π(arene) hydrogen bonds in (I), the donor and acceptor form parts of different disorder components, so that no continuous aggregation is possible. The mol­ecules of (II) are linked by a single C—H...O hydrogen bond into C(10) chains, which are linked into sheets by a π–π stacking inter­action, whereas those of (III) are just linked into C(13) chains, again by a single C—H...O hydrogen bond. Comparisons are made with the structures of some related compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]