Hydrogen astatide, also known as astatine hydride, astatane, astatidohydrogen or hydroastatic acid, is a chemical compound with the

chemical formula A chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as pare ...

HAt, consisting of an

astatine Astatine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol At and atomic number 85. It is the abundance of elements in Earth's crust, rarest naturally occurring element in the Earth's crust, occurring only as the Decay chain, decay product ...

atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

covalently bonded to a

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

atom. It thus is a

hydrogen halide In chemistry, hydrogen halides (hydrohalic acids when in the aqueous phase) are diatomic, inorganic compounds that function as Arrhenius acids. The formula is HX where X is one of the halogens: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine, or ...

. This

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

can dissolve in water to form hydroastatic acid, which exhibits properties very similar to the other five binary acids, and is in fact the strongest among them. However, it is limited in use due to its ready decomposition into elemental hydrogen and astatine, as well as the short half-life of the various

isotopes of astatine Astatine (85At) has 41 known isotopes, all of which are radioactive; their mass numbers range from 188 to 229 (though 189At is undiscovered). There are also 24 known metastable excited states. The longest-lived isotope is 210At, which has a half-l ...

. Because the atoms have a nearly equal

electronegativity Electronegativity, symbolized as , is the tendency for an atom of a given chemical element to attract shared electrons (or electron density) when forming a chemical bond. An atom's electronegativity is affected by both its atomic number and the ...

, and as the ion has been observed, dissociation could easily result in the ''hydrogen'' carrying the negative charge. Thus, a hydrogen astatide sample can undergo the following reaction: : This results in elemental hydrogen

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

and astatine

precipitate In an aqueous solution, precipitation is the "sedimentation of a solid material (a precipitate) from a liquid solution". The solid formed is called the precipitate. In case of an inorganic chemical reaction leading to precipitation, the chemic ...

. Furthermore, a trend for hydrogen halides, or HX, is that enthalpy of formation becomes less negative, i.e., decreases in magnitude but increases in absolute terms, as the halide becomes larger. Whereas hydroiodic acid solutions are stable, the hydronium-astatide solution is clearly less stable than the water-hydrogen-astatine system. Finally,

radiolysis Radiolysis is the dissociation of molecules by ionizing radiation. It is the cleavage of one or several chemical bonds resulting from exposure to high-energy flux. The radiation in this context is associated with ionizing radiation; radiolysis is ...

from astatine nuclei could sever the H–At bonds. Additionally, astatine has no stable

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

s. The most stable is astatine-210, which has a

half-life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay. Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to: Film * Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang * ''Half Life: ...

of approximately 8.1 hours, making its

s especially difficult to work with, as the astatine will quickly

decay Decay may refer to: Science and technology * Bit decay, in computing * Decay time (fall time), in electronics * Distance decay, in geography * Software decay, in computing Biology * Decomposition of organic matter * Mitochondrial decay, in g ...

into other elements.

Preparation

Hydrogen astatide can be produced by reacting astatine with hydrocarbons (such as

ethane Ethane ( , ) is a naturally occurring Organic compound, organic chemical compound with chemical formula . At standard temperature and pressure, ethane is a colorless, odorless gas. Like many hydrocarbons, ethane is List of purification methods ...

): : This reaction also produces the corresponding alkyl astatide, in this case ethyl astatide (astatoethane).

References

{{Hydrides by group Hydrogen compounds Astatine compounds Nonmetal halides Diatomic molecules Hydrides Mineral acids