1-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)butan-1-one

The title compound, C10H12O2, was synthesized by the Fries rearrangement of phenyl butyrate. There are two independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit, and all non-H atoms in each mol­ecule are coplanar, with r.m.s. deviations of 0.050 and 0.024 A. In the crystal structure, each mol­ecule is linked to symmetry-equivalent mol­ecules by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form chains along the a axis.