Which synthetic element is named after the city of Darmstadt?

Which synthetic element is named after the city of Darmstadt? The answer is darmstadtium. Its symbol is Ds, and it is element 110 in the periodic table.

Darmstadtium was first produced in November 1994 at the GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany. The discovery team, led by Sigurd Hofmann and including Peter Armbruster and Gottfried Münzenberg, created only a few atoms in a nuclear reaction. Because darmstadtium nuclei are extremely unstable, they decay rapidly into other elements.

The name was proposed in honor of Darmstadt, the city where the discovery work was carried out. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially recommended the name in 2003. The research facility is associated with the discovery of several superheavy elements, making the city unusually prominent in modern nuclear chemistry.

Darmstadtium is easy to confuse with nearby name-based elements. Roentgenium honors physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, meitnerium honors physicist Lise Meitner, and hassium is named after Hesse, the German state containing Darmstadt. Darmstadtium alone points specifically to the city.