5-Benzyl-5H-pyrido[3,2-b]indole

The title compound, C(18)H(14)N(2), was prepared by twofold Pd-catalyzed aryl­amination of a cyclic pyrido–benzo–iodo­lium salt. In the crystal, two mol­ecules of 9-benzyl-δ-carboline form centrosymmetrical dimers with distances of 3.651 (2) Å between the centroids of the pyridine rings and 3.961 (2) Å between the centroids of the pyrrole and pyridine rings. The phenyl rings point to the other mol­ecule in the dimer and the carboline core is essentially planar [maximum deviation of 0.027 (2) Å].