hassium

hassium , artificially produced radioactive chemical element; symbol Hs; at. no. 108; mass number of most stable isotope 265; m.p., b.p., sp. gr., and valence unknown. Situated in Group 8 of the periodic table , it is expected to have properties similar to those of osmium .

In 1984 a German research team led by P. Armbruster and G. Münzenberg at the Institute for Heavy Ion Research at Darmstadt bombarded lead-208 atoms with iron-58 ions. In 10 days of bombardment, they successfully produced three atoms of an isotope of element 108 with mass number 265 and a half-life of only 2 msec. They suggested that the new element be named hassium, which is derived from the Latin name for the German state of Hesse , where the institute is located. In 1994 a committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), convened to resolve naming disputes for the transactinide elements , recommended that element 108 be named hahnium. The name hassium was adopted internationally, however, in 1997.

See also synthetic elements ; transuranium elements .

hassium (symbol Hs) Synthetic, radioactive transactinide element. It is a very unstable element that is produced by high-energy atomic collisions. It was discovered in 1984 by German physicists Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg. Named after the Latin Hassia for ‘Germany’, it was formerly named hahnium. Properties: at.no. 108; r.a.m. 277.