In the crystal structure of 2,3-di-methyl-maleic anhydride, C6H6O3, the closest non-bonding inter-molecular distances, between the carbonyl C and O atoms of neighboring mol-ecules, were measured as 2.9054 (11) and 3.0509 (11) Å, which are well below the sum of the van der Waals radii for these atoms. These close contacts, as well as packing motifs similar to that of the title compound, were also found in the crystal structure of maleic anhydride itself and other 2,3-disubstituted maleic anhydrides. Computational modeling suggests that this close contact is caused by strong electrostatic inter-actions between the carbonyl C and O atoms.
Keywords: carbonyl–carbonyl interactions; crystal structure; maleic anhydride.