Three closely related (2E,2′E)-3,3′-(1,4-phenylene)bis[1-(methoxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-ones]: supramolecular assemblies in one dimension mediated by hydrogen bonding and C—H...π interactions

The three title compounds are centrosymmetric. Their packing features chains linked by either pairwise C—H⋯O or C—H⋯π inter­actions.
In the title compounds, (2E,2′E)-3,3′-(1,4-phenyl­ene)bis­[1-(2-meth­oxy­phen­yl)prop-2-en-1-one], C26H22O4 (I), (2E,2′E)-3,3′-(1,4-phenyl­ene)bis­[1-(3-meth­oxy­phen­yl)prop-2-en-1-one], C26H22O4 (II) and (2E,2′E)-3,3′-(1,4-phenyl­ene)bis­[1-(3,4-di­meth­oxy­phen­yl)prop-2-en-1-one], C28H26O6 (III), the asymmetric unit consists of a half-mol­ecule, completed by crystallographic inversion symmetry. The dihedral angles between the central and terminal benzene rings are 56.98 (8), 7.74 (7) and 7.73 (7)° for (I), (II) and (III), respectively. In the crystal of (I), mol­ecules are linked by pairs of C—H⋯π inter­actions into chains running parallel to [101]. The packing for (II) and (III), features inversion dimers linked by pairs of C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming R 2 2(16) and R 2 2(14) ring motifs, respectively, as parts of [201] and [101] chains, respectively.