Hydrogen bonds or not? Synthesis and structure of 2,3-di-cyanona-phthalene-1,4-diyl bis-(4-methylbenzene-1-sulfonate).

In the title compound, C26H18N2O6S2, the pendant substituted para-toluene moieties are inclined relative to the central naphthalene-2,3-dicarbo-nitrile unit by 45.82 (7) and 42.41 (6)°. In the extended structure, the mol-ecules are linked by offset parallel π-π stacking and C-H⋯π inter-actions to form chains that propagate along the crystallographic b-axis direction. There are no conventional hydrogen bonds according to the usual distance and angle criteria, but a Hirshfeld surface analysis shows various contacts shorter than the van der Waals radii sums of the atoms concerned. The top four contributors to the packing have percentage contributions of 26.8, 26.0, 18.7 and 17.9% for H⋯H, H⋯O, H⋯C and H⋯N, respectively.