As part of an investigation into the synthetic uses of ketals of pentonolactones, the structure of the innocent looking molecule shown below was done for the Joullié research group.
A preliminary crystal investigation indicated that the space group was trigonal or hexagonal with a=6.134(1) and c=80.874(7) Å (!!).The structure was solved in the hexagonal space group P6522 with Z=12.
The 65 screw axis produces a "spiral" or "helix" of six molecules parallel to the c-axis (To rotate the unit cell in the frame below, depress the mouse button and drag in the frame. To "zoom", hold down the shift key while dragging):