Pseudo classes like :hover
never refer to an element, but to any element that satisfies the conditions of the stylesheet rule. You need to edit the stylesheet rule, append a new rule, or add a new stylesheet that includes the new :hover
rule.
var css = 'table td:hover{ background-color: #00ff00 }';
var style = document.createElement('style');
if (style.styleSheet) {
style.styleSheet.cssText = css;
} else {
style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(css));
}
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(style);