The title compound, C18H14Cl2O4, adopts a Z conformation around the cental C=C bond. The two aromatic rings of the mol-ecule are nearly perpendicular to each other, with a dihedral angle between of 86.22 (14)°. The meth-oxy substituents lie close to the plane of the attached benzene rings. The C(ar)-C(ar)-O-C(Me) torsion angles are -2.4 (7) and 7.5 (6)°. Weak C-H⋯O inter-actions link the mol-ecules forming a three-dimensional network. The crystal packing also displays short [3.160 (3) Å] Cl⋯O halogen-bonding contacts between mol-ecules related by the screw axis. The structure exhibits disorder of one carbonyl O atom with a refined occupancy ratio of 0.21 (6):0.79 (6).
Keywords: 2,3-dichlorobut-2-ene-1,4-dione; CuCl/bpy; crystal structure; dichloromethyl radical; stereoselectivity; trichloromethyl groups.