2,4,6-Trinitro­phenyl 4-chloro­benzoate

In the title benzoate derivative, C₁₃H₆ClN₃O₈, the planes of the benzene rings form a dihedral angle of 63.46 (5)°. The dihedral angles between the benzene ring and its nitro groups are 12.78 (16)° for the first ortho, 28.4 (4) and 17.4 (4)° for the second (disordered) ortho and 3.58 (16)° for the para nitro group. The central ester moiety, –C—(C=O)—O–, is essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation for all non-H atoms = 0.0229 Å) and forms dihedral angles of 7.37 (14)° with the chloro-substituted benzene ring and 69.85 (6)° with the trinitro-substituted benzene ring. One of the nitro groups was refined as disordered over two sets of sites with fixed site occupancies of 0.61 and 0.39. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by weak C—H...O hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional network.