Rhenium metal is silvery rod, bar, stick, plate, sheet, foil, strip, coil and powder. It exists in soot from calcinator for molybdenite and copper ore, which is byproduct of refining molybdenum and copper. Ammonium perrhenate (NH4ReO4) and potassium perrhenate(KReO4) are the raw materials. The chemical properties of Re element are close to manganese and technetium.
Rhenium Metal
| CAS No.:7440-15-5 | EINECS No.:231-124-5 | Molecular Formula:Re | Molecular Weight:186.207 |
| Melting Point:3180℃ | Boiling Point:5900℃ | Density:21.04 | UN 3178 4.1/PG 2 |
Applications
Rhenium bar is mainly for nickel-rhenium alloys, which apply to manufacturing combustor, turbine blade and exhaust nozzle of jet engine. These alloys contains 6% rhenium at highest.
Rhenium powder can enhance physical property of tungsten. W-Re alloys have better plasticity at low temperature and high-temperature stability is better too, which is easy to process and shape. The change increase with the amount of rhenium increase, so W-Re alloy contains 27% rhenium, which is also the solublity limit of rhenium in tungsten. The alloys can apply to X-ray sources and thermocouple
In chemical industry, rhenium element can use as catalyst for dehydrogenation. Rhenium powder is raw material for Pt-Re catalys that is for producing gasoline without lead and high octane. It is for spectral analysis too.