Rhenium is a very dense and very rare silver coloured transition metal lying to the left of osmium in the Periodic Table. It's melting point of 3,180°C is only exceeded by tungsten. Although its existence was deduced, rhenium was the last of the stable elements to be discovered in May 1925 - less than a century ago it would have been impossible to to possess one of these rhenium pearls! Rhenium is obtained as a by-product of molybdenum smelting and no rhenium minerals were known until 1994 when Russian mineralogists studying the Kudriavy volcano in the Kuril Islands discovered a mineral consisting of nearly pure rhenium sulfide, subsequently named rheniite. Rhenium is now important in a number of nickel based superalloys used in the aerospace industry. It is generally stable but is susceptible to oxidising in moist air.

purity: 99.99%

size: ~5mm

vial size: 44mm x 20mm

weight: 5 grams

price: £67 ex. shipping