 Discovery Information |
| Who:
Walter Noddack
,
Ida Tacke
, Otto Berg |
| When: 1925 |
| Where: Germany |
|
| Name Origin |
| From the Rhines provinces of Germany. |
|
| Sources |
| Found in small amounts in gadolinite and molybdenite. This element is widely spread through the earth's crust at approximately 0.001 parts per million. |
|
| Uses |
| It is added to tungsten and molybdenum alloys and is used in refractory metal components of missiles, electronic filaments, electrical contacts, high-temperature thermocouplers, oven filaments, electrodes, igniters for flash bulbs, jewellery, plating of metals by electrolysis and vapor-phase deposition. |
|
| Notes |
| Rhenium is a metallic element that has a very high tensile strength (80,000psi), high modulus of elasticity, is virtually insoluble in hydrochloric acid and does not oxidize or corrode in saltwater. In addition it has the widest range of valences of any element and it retains its crystalline structure all the way to its melting point. Alloys of rhenium-molybdenum are superconductive at 10K. |
| Rhenium was the last naturally-occuring element to be discovered. |
