r/chemistry • u/Captain_Iridium • 3h ago
A hammered-finish pure Rhenium (Element 75) ring I made and mirror-polished
Hello,I'm Captain Iridium, first-time poster here!
I have loved corrosion-resistant metals for 34 years and have been handcrafting rings from pure refractory metals (Ir, Ru, Rh, Re, Ta, Nb, Hf, Zr, etc.) since 2010.
This is a ring I made from pure Rhenium.
Rhenium is very difficult to work with and polish.I have spent 16 years improving my hand-polishing skills for rare metals. It was a big challenge to polish each small hammered mark into a true mirror shine, with zero coating or plating.
Among all the metals in the periodic table, Rhenium is my 4th favorite metal—right after Iridium, Rhodium, and Tantalum. At room temperature, Rhenium in compact (solid) form hardly reacts with air or water, and it can resist hydrochloric acid and dilute sulfuric acid under normal conditions. Some articles say that Rhenium can even withstand aqua regia, but that is completely wrong! (In fact, Rhenium dissolves easily in nitric acid and aqua regia.) The reason for this myth is that a book named Corrosion Guide misspelled "Rhodium" as "Rhenium". Many later books and articles blindly cited that chapter, spreading such a big mistake!😁😁😁