Crystallographic and spectroscopic characterization of racemic Mosher's Acid.

The title compound, C10H9F3O3, represents the structure of racemic Mosher's Acid (systematic name: 3,3,3-tri-fluoro-2-meth-oxy-2-phenyl-propanoic acid), a carb-oxy-lic acid that when resolved can be employed as a chiral derivatizing agent. The compound contains a carb-oxy-lic acid group, a meth-oxy group and a tri-fluoro-methyl substituent on an asymmetric benzylic carbon atom. The two independent mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit form a non-centrosymmetric homochiral dimer via inter-molecularly hydrogen-bonded head-to-tail dimers with graph-set notation R 2 2(8) and donor-acceptor hydrogen-bonding distances of 2.6616 (13) and 2.6801 (13) Å.