N,N‐Diphenylbenzamide

In the title compound, C₁₉H₁₅NO, the neutral molecules are held together in the crystal structure by very weak C—H...O interactions, giving rise to a linear chain‐like structure. The structure of the molecule has been optimized using density functional theory at the B3LYP/6‐31G(d) level and this is compared with the molecular structure in the solid state. The two structures show significant differences in the relative orientations of the aromatic rings, which is interesting for further supramolecular study. Apart from the crystal structure analysis, powder X‐ray diffraction, UV–visible and thermogravimetric analyses of the compound have been carried out.