Rhenium, element 75 on the periodic table, belongs to the cluster of elements known as the transition group of elements. It was the last of the natural elements to be discovered, some 50 years after the introduction of the periodic table. It is a silvery white, rare, heavy, polyvalent transition metal.
Rhenium is used as an additive to tungsten- and molybdenum-based alloys to give useful properties. These alloys are used for oven filaments and x-ray machines. It is also used as an electrical contact material as it resists wear and withstands arc corrosion.
Rhenium is a chemical element with the symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-gray, heavy metal belonging to the group of transition metals in the periodic table. Known for its rarity in Earth's crust, rhenium possesses a high melting point and excellent durability.
Rhenium, a rare and valuable metal, has a fascinating history marked by both early predictions and later confirmations. Though its existence was predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869 based on gaps in his periodic table, it wasn't isolated until much later. The credit for its discovery goes to German chemists Ida Tacke-Noddack, Walter Noddack, and Otto Berg in 1925. They achieved this feat through a meticulous process of analyzing various minerals using X-ray spectroscopy.
Following its discovery, rhenium's unique properties, including its high melting point and resistance to corrosion, began to be explored. While initially challenging to extract in large quantities, advancements in processing techniques have made it more accessible for various applications.
rhenium is obtained as a byproduct of refining molybdenum and copper. Discovery of rhenium is generally attributed to Noddack, Tacke, and Berg, who announced in 1925 they had detected the element in platinum ore and columbite. They also found the element in gadolinite and molybdenite.