Salts of hexol were first described by Jørgensen, although it was Werner who recognized its structure.  The cation is prepared by heating a solution containing the cis-diaquotetramminecobalt(III) cation [Co(NH)(HO)] with a dilute base:
:4  [Co(NH)(HO)] + 2 HO → {[Co(NH)(OH)]Co}  +  4 NH + 4 HO