Rhenium - History

History

Rhenium (Latin: Rhenus meaning: "Rhine") was the last element to be discovered having a stable isotope (other new radioactive elements have been discovered in nature since then, such as neptunium and plutonium). The existence of a yet undiscovered element at this position in the periodic table had been first predicted by Dmitry Mendeleev. Other calculated information was obtained by Henry Moseley in 1914. It is generally considered to have been discovered by Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke, and Otto Berg in Germany. In 1925 they reported that they detected the element in platinum ore and in the mineral columbite. They also found rhenium in gadolinite and molybdenite. In 1928 they were able to extract 1 g of the element by processing 660 kg of molybdenite.It was estimated in 1968 that 75% of the rhenium metal in the United States was used for research and the development of refractory metal alloys. It took several years from that point on before the super alloys became widely used.

In 1908, Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa announced that he discovered the 43rd element and named it nipponium (Np) after Japan (Nippon in Japanese). However, later analysis indicated the presence of rhenium (element 75), not element 43. The symbol Np was later used for the element neptunium.