Crystal structures of ethyl 6-(4-methyl­phen­yl)-4-oxo-4H-chromene-2-carboxyl­ate and ethyl 6-(4-fluoro­phen­yl)-4-oxo-4H-chromene-2-carboxyl­ate

The crystal structures of two chromone derivatives, viz. ethyl 6-(4-methyl­phen­yl)-4-oxo-4H-chromene-2-carboxyl­ate, C(19)H(16)O(4), (1), and ethyl 6-(4-fluoro­phen­yl)-4-oxo-4H-chromene-2-carboxyl­ate C(18)H(13)FO(4), (2), have been determined: (1) crystallizes with two mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit. A comparison of the dihedral angles beween the mean planes of the central chromone core with those of the substituents, an ethyl ester moiety at the 2-position and a para-substituted phenyl ring at the 6-position shows that each mol­ecule differs significantly from the others, even the two independent mol­ecules (a and b) of (1). In all three mol­ecules, the carbonyl groups of the chromone and the carboxyl­ate are trans-related. The supra­molecular structure of (1) involves only weak C—H⋯π inter­actions between H atoms of the substituent phenyl group and the phenyl group, which link mol­ecules into a chain of alternating mol­ecules a and b, and weak π–π stacking inter­actions between the chromone units. The packing in (2) involves C—H⋯O inter­actions, which form a network of two inter­secting ladders involving the carbonyl atom of the carboxyl­ate group as the acceptor for H atoms at the 7-position of the chromone ring and from an ortho-H atom of the exocyclic benzene ring. The carbonyl atom of the chromone acts as an acceptor from a meta-H atom of the exocyclic benzene ring. π–π inter­actions stack the mol­ecules by unit translation along the a axis.