Crystal structure of di­methyl 4,4′-di­meth­­oxy­bi­phenyl-3,3′-di­carboxyl­ate

In the title compound, C18H18O6, the benzene rings are coplanar due to the centrosymmetric nature of the mol­ecule, with an inversion centre located at the midpoint of the C—C bond between the two rings. Consequently, the methyl carboxyl­ate substituents are oriented in a trans fashion with regards to the bond between the benzene rings. The methyl carboxyl­ate and meth­oxy substituents are rotated slightly out of plane relative to their parent benzene rings, with dihedral and torsion angles of 18.52 (8) and −5.22 (15)°, respectively. The shortest O⋯H contact between neighbouring mol­ecules is about 2.5 Å. Although some structure-directing contributions from C—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions are possible, the crystal packing seems primarily directed by weak van der Waals forces.