N,N-Dihexyl-4-[2-(4-nitro­phen­yl)vin­yl]aniline

The title compound, C(26)H(36)N(2)O(2), was prepared by Horner olefination of p-dihexyl-amino-benzaldehyde and diethyl p-nitro-benzyl-phospho-nate. It crystallizes with two independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit. Both have similar geometries of the π-systems but the conformations of all hexyl chains are different. Whereas one hexyl chain of the first mol-ecule shows the typical all-anti conformation, the second is arranged in a gauche-anti-gauche-anti conformation with N-C-C-C, C-C-C-C, C-C-C-C and C-C-C-C torsion angles of -65.1 (4), 167.3 (3), 63.3 (4), and 179.4 (3)°. One of the hexyl chains in the other mol-ecule has an anti-anti-gauche-anti conformation [N-C-C-C, C-C-C-C, C-C-C-C and C-C-C-C torsion angles = 179.6 (3), -179.8 (3), -68.7 (5) and -178.8 (4)°], the other starts with an anti-gauche-gauche sequence. Molecules A and B are composed of five planar subunits. The angle sums around the N atoms are in the range 356 (2)-360.0 (2)°. Torsion angles between these segments do not exceed 4.9 (4)°, except for one of the alkyl chains each [molecule A = 26.2 (4)°; molecule B = -6.0 (4)°]. The high planarity of the molecules and the short aniline C-N bonds [1.385 (3) Å in molecule A and 1.378 (3) Å in molecule B] indicate a strong electronic coupling through the stilbene unit. One methylene group is disordered over two positions with an occupancy ratio of 0.72:0.28.