First chemical investigation of hassium (Hs, Z=108)

Recently, the first successful chemical investigation of element 108, hassium (Hs) has been reported [1]. Based on 7 detected atoms, Hs was shown to form a higly volatile oxide, most probably HsO 4 . Therefore it behaves similarly to Os, which is known to form highly volatile OsO 4 . The enthalpies of adsorption-ΔH a O(T) of the compounds on silicon nitride were evaluated as (46±2) kJ/mol for HsO 4 , compared to (39±1) kJ/mol for OsO 4 under identical experimental conditions. Hs should therefore be considered as a member of group 8 of the periodic table.