Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : The crystal structure of 3-benzyloxybenzyldehyde (2) has been determined from laboratory X-ray powder diffraction data. The DFT optimized molecular geometry in 2 agrees closely with that obtained from the X-ray study. The crystal packing in 2 has been compared with that of 2-benzyloxybenzaldehyde (1) and 4-benzyloxybenzaldehyde (3), and the role of weak intermolecular interactions in building supramolecular assembly in solid state has been analyzed. The Hirshfeld surface analysis of 1-3 and a few related benzyloxybenzyldehydes retrieved from the Cambridge Structural Database indicates that the H ... H, C ... H and O ... H contacts can account for about 95% of the Hirshfeld surface area in this class of compounds. © 2013 by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, München.