2,3-Dimethylbutane-2,3-diyl 1,2-phenylene orthocarbonate

Abstract

The title compound, C13H16O4, is a mixed orthocarbonic acid ester derived from the alcohol components benzene-1,2-diol and 2,3-dimethyl­butane-2,3-diol (pinacol). The spiro­cyclic mol­ecules exhibit noncrystallographic C2 symmetry. The C—O bonds between the spiro centre and the aliphatic di­oxy fragment are markedly shorter than the bonds to the aromatic residue. Neither steric strain, which equalizes the bond lengths in a glucoside analogue, nor the packing of the mol­ecules in the crystal structure are responsible for the large C—O bond-length range, which obviously is a mol­ecular property.