There is long-standing interest in the electronic structure of small-ring compounds containing boron.[1] However, the simple boron hydride B 3 H 6 + , being isoelectronic to the smallest aromatic organic compound, namely the 2p system C 3 H 3 + , has not yet been prepared. The possible structure of B 3 H 6 + was assessed in a number of quantum-chemical calculations using various levels of theory. [2,3] These calculations predicted a C 3v -symmetric, nonplanar global minimum structure with three bridging hydrogen atoms (see Scheme 1). The D 3h -symmetric planar form does not represent an energy minimum, is approximately 175 kJ mol À1 higher in energy than the C 3v -symmetric global energy minimum. B 3 H 6 + was therefore declared to be the "first three-membered nonplanar 2p aromatic" species.[2a]Korkin, Schleyer, and McKee also considered other isomers in their calculations.[3] They found in total four energy minimum structures, which are displayed in Scheme 1. According to their ab initio (MP2) calculations, a C 2v -symmetric isomer featuring a B 3 triangle with one short (150.1 pm) and two longer B À B bonds (184.9 pm) as well as two bridging hydrogen atoms (see Scheme 1) lies 49 kJ mol À1 higher in energy than the C 3v -symmetric global energy minimum. In two further C S -and C 2v -symmetric isomers a B-B-B chain is established. The energies of these two isomers are already 60 and 77 kJ mol À1 higher than the C 3v global energy minimum structure. Up to date, none of these isomers or even a derivative of B 3 H 6 + have been structurally characterized. Herein we report the synthesis and complete characterization of a doubly base-stabilized B 3 H 6 + analogue. In our studies we used the doubly base-stabilized diborane(4) [HB(m-hpp)] 2 (1), which was synthesized as described previously by catalytic dehydrogenation of the adduct H 3 B·hppH (Scheme 2).[4] We recently reported on different aspects of the reactivity of 1. For example, sulfuration was shown to give [HB(m-hpp)] 2 (m-S), [5] and protonation leads to the cation and doubly base-stabilized B 2 H 5[6] Moreover, the complexes [{HB(m-hpp)} 2 ZnX 2 ] and [{HB(m-hpp)} 2 ZnMe 2 ] were obtained as the products of reaction with zinc halides ZnX 2 (X = Cl, Br) or dimethylzinc, respectively.[7] These reactions demonstrated the high nucleophilicity of 1. In the light of this chemical behavior, we tested the reaction of 1 with BR 2 + (R = H or alkyl) cationic species. In the course of our research, we treated 1 with Nborabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-9-yl (9-BBN) bis-(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (2 a) and trifluoromethanesulfonate (2 b) (see Scheme 3), which are known as easily accessible sources of a highly electrophilic boronium ion.[8] We indeed observed the formation of a single reaction product.Both salts 3 a and 3 b could be crystallized from toluene or toluene/petroleum ether (40/60) solutions. However, only for the crystals of 3 b was a good-quality structure derived on the basis of the X-ray diffraction data. The unit cell contains two slightly different cationic unit...