The chemical element rhenium is named after the Rhine River.
It is one of the rarest elements in the earth’s crust and the last of the naturally-occurring non-radioactive elements to be discovered.
Rhenium has a number of claims to chemical fame: the metal has the highest boiling point (5596°C), third highest melting point and is the fourth most dense of all the elements.
It finds use in alloys and catalysts, says Professor Allan Blackman from AUT, in episode 68 of Elemental.
Photo: RNZ
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Professor Allan Blackman is at Auckland University of Technology.
