The hydrolytic cleavage of 2-phenyloxazolo[3,2-a]-pyridinium tetrafluo
roborate results in the formation of the title tris(1-phenacyl-2-pyrid
one) hydroxonium tetrafluoroborate complex, 3C(13)H(11)NO(2) . H3O+BF4
-. The structure is built up from hydrogen-bonded cations and disorder
ed BF4- anions. The strong hydrogen bonding causes considerable redist
ribution of electron density in the pyridone moiety.