The acid is very deliquescent, and oxidizes on exposure to air to phosphoric acid.
It is very deliquescent and readily soluble in water.
It gives the normal sulphate as a yellow, deliquescent, amorphous mass when treated with nitric acid.
Ruthenium sulphate, Ru(S04)2, as obtained by oxidizing the sulphide, is an orange-yellow mass which is deliquescent and dissolves in water, the solution possessing a strongly acid reaction.
Besides the rock-salt, which is excavated by blasting, the saline deposits of Stassfurt yield a considerable quantity of deliquescent salts and other saline products, which have encouraged the foundation of numerous chemical factories in the town and in the neighbouring village of Leopoldshall, which lies in Anhalt territory.