What is rhenium used for? | Detailed Explanation

Before talking about the topic of “what is rhenium used for”, we want to introduce some basic information about rhenium first. Rhenium is a chemical element and a silver-white heavy metal that pertains to the sixth-period transition metal in the periodic table. It is one of the rare elements in the crust of the earth and one of the elements that possess the highest melting and boiling points. Rhenium is a by-product of the process of copper and molybdenum refining. Its name has a history because it is taken from the beautiful Rhine River, a Europe river.

What is rhenium used for?

1. Rhenium used for rhenium alloy field

The global storage capacity of rhenium is very small, and its price is relatively expensive. Even so, if adding some rhenium to the alloys, the performance of alloys can be greatly improved and enhanced. So the alloys consisting of rhenium are widely used in aerospace, electronics, and other industrial sectors.

1.1 Nickel-rhenium alloy

The creep strength of nickel superalloys is enhanced because of the addition of rhenium. They are often used in the combustion chambers, turbine blades, and exhaust nozzles of jet engines. Rhenium-nickel alloy is the key material of modern jet engine blades, turbine disks, and other important structural parts. Rhenium can enhance the properties of nickel-based superalloys, and alloys for single-crystal blades can also be manufactured. Both of these effects allow turbines to work at higher temperatures.

1.2 Tungsten-rhenium alloy, molybdenum-rhenium alloy

Molybdenum alloy is based on molybdenum with 2-5% rhenium added. The plasticity and strength of molybdenum is improved with the addition of rhenium. We have to say when 35% rhenium is added to molybdenum, the rolling deformation can reach 90% at room temperature. From this, we can see that rhenium has very important effects on the alloy. Besides, the ductility, tensile strength, and resistivity of molybdenum-rhenium alloys at room temperature increase as the content of rhenium increases.

We can produce tungsten-rhenium alloy and molybdenum-rhenium alloy by adding a suitable amount of rhenium to tungsten and molybdenum. These alloys not only can be formed into various structural materials with good plasticity but also have high hardness, high strength, and high-temperature resistance. 

Due to these excellent properties, molybdenum-rhenium alloys are often used in the manufacture of X-ray tube targets with very quick speed rotating, high-temperature furnace heating elements, and long-life grid plates that are used for microwave communication.

Besides, tungsten-rhenium alloy is widely used in high-temperature technology, the electric vacuum industry, and medical and chemical fields, usually used to manufacture special electronic tubes and color picture tube filaments, high-temperature products. 

2. Rhenium is used as a catalyst

Rhenium possesses a well-selective catalytic function for the majority of chemical reactions. So it is often used as a catalyst in petrochemical engineering and other fields. Catalytic reforming is one of the petroleum refining processes, which is very helpful to improve the quality of gasoline and produce petrochemical raw materials.

In the process of catalytic reforming, the reforming reaction can react more thoroughly and increase the output of aromatics and gasoline just because rhenium acts as a catalyst. Besides, rhenium, as a catalyst, can help to purify automobile exhaust gas. If rhenium exists in the form of sulfide can be used as a hydrogenation catalyst for cresol and lignin. So what is rhenium used for? Through the above introduction, we can see that rhenium plays a key role, especially in the field of high temperature.

Conclusion:

In the end, this brings us to conclude our essay on the topic of “What is rhenium used for”. Rhenium is a rare and very expensive element, but it is still widely used because the addition of rhenium can greatly increase various properties of different alloys. One of the main uses of rhenium is to produce superalloy productions for jet engines. Rhenium is also used as a platinum-rhenium catalyst, which can be applied to produce unleaded high-octane gasoline. So rhenium is very important in the high-temperature fields and catalytic fields.