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The most important application area for rhenium is its use in nickel-based superalloys. These alloys are primarily used in aircraft engines, gas turbines and certain aerospace applications. Rhenium improves the high-temperature strength and creep resistance. This means that components deform much more slowly even under high heat and permanent mechanical stress.
The effect of rhenium is primarily based on the fact that it slows down the diffusion of atoms within the alloy. As a result, the microstructures that are important for strength remain stable for longer at high temperatures. In turbine blades, rhenium thus helps to delay material fatigue, deformation and structural degradation. This enables higher operating temperatures, better efficiency and a longer service life for heavily loaded components.
Rhenium's very high melting point of around 3,186 degrees Celsius is an important material property. However, the performance of superalloys containing rhenium is primarily determined by how rhenium stabilizes the alloy structure and increases its resilience at extreme temperatures.
The second largest area of application for rhenium is the oil industry. It accounts for around 15 percent of annual demand. Together with platinum, the technology metal is used in catalysts in oil refining to improve the quality of fuels. In catalytic reforming, intermediate products such as naphtha are chemically converted into higher-quality petrol components that increase the octane rating of the fuel. The octane number indicates the so-called knock resistance, i.e. how resistant a fuel is to uncontrolled self-ignition in the engine - the higher, the better.
Rhenium extends the service life and performance of the catalytic converter system. The metal ensures that less carbon is deposited on the surface than with pure platinum. This slows down wear and reduces the energy requirement because more stable operation with lower pressure and lower temperature is possible over the entire catalytic converter service life.
A relatively small but technologically important area of application for rhenium is high-temperature and special applications. Here, the metal is mainly used as an alloy additive to make materials more resistant to heat and mechanical stress.
From the 1950s onwards, rhenium was increasingly used in high-temperature materials such as tungsten and molybdenum alloys. The aim was to produce materials with high temperature resistance that hardly deform even under permanent stress - for example for heating wires, thermocouples and associated measuring systems. These are used in high-temperature furnaces, aerospace technology and engine tests, among other applications. Above all, temperature measurement under extreme conditions is still one of the most important special applications for rhenium.
Rhenium is also used in highly stressed components and in radiation applications such as electron beam and X-ray technology. To a lesser extent, it is used in high-vacuum technology - i.e. in systems that are almost devoid of air and operate under extremely low pressure to enable processes under particularly pure conditions. In medicine, molybdenum alloys containing rhenium are being used in the first specialized applications for next-generation, heavy-duty implants.