Ethyl 1-(2-hy­droxy­eth­yl)-2-phenyl-1H-benzimidazole-5-carboxyl­ate

There are two mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(18)H(18)N(2)O(3). In each one, the benzimidazole ring system is essentially planar, with maximum deviations of 0.027 (1) and 0.032 (1)Å, and makes dihedral angles of 38.64 (6) and 41.48 (6)°, respectively, with the attached benzene rings. An intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bond is observed in each mol­ecule. The two independent mol­ecules are connected into a dimer by two inter­molecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. In the crystal, mol­ecules form a two-dimensional layers parallel to (012) via weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. In addition, weak π-π stacking inter­actions are observed with centroid–centroid distances of 3.5244 (12) and 3.6189 (12) Å.