Experimental chemistry Gas phase thumb|upright=0.5|The tetrahedral structure of the RfCl4 molecule Early work on the study of the chemistry of rutherfordium focused on gas thermochromatography and measurement of relative deposition temperature adsorption curves. The initial work was carried out at Dubna in an attempt to reaffirm their discovery of the element. Recent work is more reliable regarding the identification of the parent rutherfordium radioisotopes. The isotope 261mRf has been used for these studies, though the long-lived isotope 267Rf (produced in the decay chain of 291Lv, 287Fl, and 283Cn) may be advantageous for future experiments. The experiments relied on the expectation that rutherfordium would be a 6d element in group 4 and should therefore form a volatile molecular tetrachloride, that would be tetrahedral in shape. Rutherfordium(IV) chloride is more volatile than its lighter homologue hafnium(IV) chloride (HfCl4) because its bonds are more covalent.
Experimental chemistry Gas phase thumb|upright=0.5|The tetrahedral structure of the RfCl4 molecule Early work on the study of the chemistry of rutherfordium focused on gas thermochromatography and measurement of relative deposition temperature adsorption curves. The initial work was carried out at Dubna in an attempt to reaffirm their discovery of the element Recent work is more reliable regarding the identification of the parent rutherfordium radioisotopes. The isotope 261mRf has been used for these studies, though the long-lived isotope 267Rf (produced in the decay chain of 291Lv, 287Fl, and 283Cn) may be advantageous for future experiments. The experiments relied on the expectation that rutherfordium. would be a 6d element in group 4 and should therefore form a volatile molecular tetrachloride, that would be tetrahedral in shape. Rutherfordium(IV) chloride is more volatile than its lighter homologue hafnium(IV) chloride (HfCl4) because its bonds are more covalent.