Phenacyl benzoates possess commercial importance due to their various applications in the fields of synthetic and photochemistry, such as photosensitive blocking groups owing to their ease of cleavage under mild conditions. In the present study, a series of ten new 2-(4-bromophenyl)-2-oxoethyl benzoates 2(a-j), with the general formula Br(C 6 H 4 )COCH 2 OCO(C 6 H 5Àn X n ), X ¼ Cl, NO 2 or NH 2 , and n ¼ 1 or 2, have been synthesized by reacting 4-bromophenacyl bromide with various substituted benzoic acids using potassium carbonate in DMF medium at room temperature. These reactions proceeded with ease under mild conditions producing high purity products in good yield. Each product was characterized by mass spectra, elemental analysis and melting points, its 3D structure was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The X-ray 3D structures showed the flexibility of the C(¼O)-O-C-C(¼O) connecting bridge in which 7 out of 10 compounds tend to form a torsion angle in the range of 70 to 91°, whereas the rest are slightly twisted with a torsion angles of À160, 163, 176 and 178°. Their molecular conformations are in good agreement with another 22 related structures. These synthesized compounds were screened for their abilities for DPPH radical scavenging and ferric reducing anti-oxidant power. The results indicate that these compounds displayed mild anti-oxidant ability when compared to the standard anti-oxidant BHT.