Crystal structure of ( E )-4-benzyl-idene-6-phenyl-1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10-octa-hydro-phenanthridine

The preparation of the title compound, C H N, was achieved by the condensation of an ethano-lic mixture of benzaldehyde, cyclo-hexa-none and ammonium acetate in a 2:1:1 molar ratio. There are two crystallographically independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit. The two cyclo-hexyl rings adopt an -envelope conformation with the benzyl moiety adopting a conformation with respect to the nitro-gen atom of the phenanthridine segment. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked through C-H⋯N inter-actions into hydrogen-bonded chains that are further arranged into distinct layers by weak offset π-π inter-actions.