Crystal structure of 5-[4-(di-ethyl-amino)-benzyl-idene]-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione.

The title compound, C17H21NO4, consists of substituted Meldrum's acid with a [4-(di-ethyl-amino)-phen-yl]methyl-idene fragment attached to the fifth position. The heterocycle assumes a distorted boat conformation. The planar part of heterocycle is almost coplanar with the benzene ring due to the presence of a long conjugated system in the mol-ecule. This leads to the formation of C-H⋯O-type intra-molecular contacts. As a result of the absence of hydrogen-bond donors in the structure, the crystal packing is controlled by van der Waals forces and weak C-H⋯O inter-actions, which associate the mol-ecules into inversion dimers.