RHENIUM (new) - Periodic Table of Videos

From volcanic minerals to a fascinating red oxide - we discuss Rhenium in this all new video. More links and info in full description ↓↓↓
Videos on all 118 elements: bit.ly/118elements
Featuring Professor Martyn Poliakoff, Neil Barnes, Mike Rumsey and a cameo from Natalia Dyachenko
Thanks to Mike Rumsey from the Natural History Museum who discussed Rheniite - www.nhm.ac.uk/...
Thanks to Anthony Lipmann from Lipmann Walton & Co Ltd - for the samples and arranging the Rhenium at 99 event - www.lipmann.co...
Thanks to KGHM from the pellet production footage - kghm.com/en
Support us on Patreon: / periodicvideos
More chemistry at www.periodicvid...
Follow us on Facebook at / periodicvideos
And on Twitter at / periodicvideos
From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: bit.ly/NottChem
This episode was also generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: www.bradyharan....
Brady's Blog: www.bradyharanb...
Join Brady's mailing list for updates and extra stuff --- eepurl.com/YdjL9

[@periodicvideos]

Patrons can get a few bonus pics and extra info... www.patreon.com/posts/new-rhenium-and-113229143

[@robertb6889]

What if you mixed the oxide vapors with H2S flowing in a heated furnace somehow? Would it condense down the rheniite?

[@dang495]

Everyone in the room should be wearing a particle mask when an angle grinder is being used!

[@coreys.6339]

Fun fact from a geologist. Most rhenium is sourced from the mineral molybdenite, which is a primary ore of molybdenum that often can have a lot of inclusions of rhenium. If the weight% is high enough, we actually give it a subspecie name of rhenium molybdenite. The rhenium bearing molybdenite often occurs in porphory deposits, which contain a lot of metal sulfides, primarily of copper. One of those is in Kazakhstan, which was mentioned here, but theres also plenty in many volcanic zones, noteably in Chile, and southwestern USA/Mexico

[@pattheplanter]

I am disappointed it is not rhenish molybdenite, like the wine from the Rhine.

[@SamSeth]

Thanks

[@markiangooley]

I wonder whether the Climax molybdenum mine in Colorado has enough rhenium in the molybdenum ore to be a practical source. The ore is only about 1/6 of a percent molybdenum, so the amount of rhenium probably is vanishingly small…

[@r.ramjet5060]

i thought it came from copper mines?

[@bradley3549]

I love these revisitations of elements that have already been covered once. It really demonstrates that no matter what we know we can always learn more. A great lesson for youth.

[@kidmohair8151]

all of us

[@Sol_Badguy_GG]

Why youth? A great lesson for every age.

[@Erik_The_Viking]

Neil was clearly enjoying himself with the sledgehammer. Great to see new videos and learn about the history of the various elements. I wish they taught this in school.

[@faeembrugh]

The Rhenium is clearly going 'come on human do your worst!'

[@galenicalhoover6508]

Neil! Smash!

[@Josh1Productions]

Having done a PhD on organometallic rhenium chemistry, I must compliment you guys on the good video. The vulcanic ore was new to me, and the controversy surrounding its discovery is a funny story. Some points (however): The incineration of Re could have been done to greater effect. If Re is heated in an O2 atmosphere above 250°C (you can do so with the pellets at >50 g scale in a tube furnace), you can obtain fairly pure Re2O7 which is a volatile yellow solid. Secondly, I can confirm that mechanically manipulating Re is essentially a lost cause (Mohs hardness 7) and we have destroyed several tungsten carbide drill bits in futile attempts at obtaining Re shavings. Thirdly, the fundamental chemistry of rhenium chemistry is rather exciting, the [Re(CO)3Phen(Br)] complexes being only one of many useful compounds. While perhaps not as exciting to a larger audience, it quite exciting to work on. Cheers :)

[@AG-pm3tc]

May i just ask, did you able to get these shavings? If so (and if it is no secret) how did you accomplish it?

[@jonadabtheunsightly]

@@AG-pm3tc The obvious approach would be to start with a compound that readily forms a powder, and then react it in such a manner as to separate the rhenium from the other elements, possibly in solution, so that the rhenium precipitates. The tricky part is finding a reaction that gives you elemental rhenium, rather than just a different rhenium compound. Most of the processes that are used to refine metals to their elemental form, give you a single mass of molten metal, which of course defeats the entire exercise in this case. Although I suppose melting the rhenium and then subjecting it to physical forces that cause splashes that sends bits of it flying, could also work, in principle.

[@seanoneil2353]

Why not just grind it with a diamond lap? Hardness 7 is not that bad.

[@ligmabaldrich485]

Hey, do you have any cool photos of the rhenium compounds you've made? Would love to see them :)

[@Josh1Productions]

@@AG-pm3tc no. The "shavings" were pretty much just tungsten carbide dust with minor amounts of re powder. The issue with the shavings is that most re sources are sintilated pellets. Not actual metallic Re.

[@KeepAnimeDegenerate]

A lot of people don't know this, but natural rhenium is actually slightly radioactive. It occurs as two isotopes: Re-185 and Re-187. The 185 isotope is stable, but only makes up a third of natural rhenium. The 187 isotope is the rest, but has a half-life of around 40 billion years.

[@renerpho]

I don't have this much time to wait for it to disappear. I think I'll burn my rhenium instead.

[@stamasd8500]

I have actually tried to detect the natural radioactivity of rhenium from a pure Re pellet. I have a quite sensitive gamma spectroscopy setup with a fairly large and sensitive detector, but was unable to discern its activity even after long acquisition times. Perhaps if I had one of those cryogenic detectors made of germanium I could distinguish it from the background - but I don't.

[@renerpho]

@@stamasd8500 Would you be able to detect a beta decay with your gamma spectroscopy setup?

[@itech20]

Is that Neil saying "Oops!" I think that's the first time we've been allowed to hear him.

[@winterlighthome]

To me, hearing someone like Neil say, "Oops!" in the lab would mean, "Run for your lives!"

[@nasonguy]

They let his voice slip in a few videos ago. Just one word. I’ll see if I can’t find the video and timestamp. Edit: Found it! It’s their new Scandium video from a few weeks ago, timestamp 13:04.

[@cwtrain]

@@winterlighthome Damn straight. I'd sprint for the door and ask questions later.

[@element54_]

When Professor Poliakoff said "so we are here at..." I thought it was going to cut to him being filmed at the volcano, Tom Scott style, despite having said he wasn't going to go.

[@redryder3721]

You weren't the only one who thought that!

[@chilleycheesetoes3225]

haha at least i'm not the only one lol

[@ehsnils]

Now you missed James Burke style in his Connections series.

[@ScottJasonCohen]

Natalia's handshake game is on point.

[@k.c.sunshine1934]

19:35 I like that Natalia was silently watching the chemistry demonstration up-until the end where she saved the whole video by creating a fascinating fluorescent Rhenium compound.

[@Anand_619]

More regular uploads please. Go beyond the periodic table, give us all the knowledge professor has to share !

[@bungalo50]

"I think these stories are lost in the midst of time..." is such a wise way to say "I think you can make up your own mind about that"

[@Spasiboy]

Thank You Professor, Neil and Brady and all for allowing me to be a little less ignorant regarding the elements and chemistry. Forever watching.

[@0neIntangible]

(18:46) Umbrella custom made, to protect one from the elements.

[@modaljazz59]

😂

[@AndersIRGhost]

All these new element videos are really nice. 20 minutes flew by in an instant.

[@docostler]

I didn't realize I was over 70% as old as the discovery of Rhenium! My first 'real' job out of high school was working as a sample preparation tech at a largish copper mine on Vancouver Island, B.C. The mine milled 30,000 tons per day of ore to produce about 600 tons of a copper sulphide concentrate which contained small amounts of gold and silver. A separate mill circuit reprocessed the copper concentrate to extract molybdenum. As a paid-for byproduct the molybdenum concentrate contained some rhenium. The copper went in bulk by ship in lots of 10s of thousands tonnes, the moly went by semitrailer truck in barrels much less frequently, and the rhenium was left up to the moly buyer to recover on their own.

[@theemissary1313]

Every day with a new video from Professor Poliakoff is a great day.

[@BrunoRegno]

Total agreement here.

[@superman9693]

It sure is and I hope he‘ll be around for as long as possible

[@Erik_The_Viking]

Neil was clearly enjoying himself with the sledgehammer. Great to see new videos and learn about the history of the various elements. I wish they taught this in school.

[@Nobe_Oddy]

I LOVE that you are still putting out more videos in this series! and YES, I have watched ALL OF THEM.. IN ORDER!!! :D It's a bit disappointing that there isn't much to say about quite a few of the elements... science just hasn't found a use for all of them I guess... but when you guys put out new vids like this I feel like a kid in a candy shop because it's usually about the elements you weren't able to make full videos about.... And the cool partt is that I honestly forget most of what I watched those couple of years ago, so I would be perfectly fine with watching them all over again one day :) THANK YOU BRADY, PROFESSOR, AND NEIL (and all the supporting cast through the videos) - :)

[@Oldtanktapper]

You should buy Neil a diamond file for Christmas, he’ll be able to get sparkly powders from anything then!

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

Just imagine the puns.

[@Ojref1]

I think that absolute unit of a vise deserves its own video.

[@boboften9952]

Thank you Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff Thank You Brady Haran Thank you Neil Thank you Team

[@TheVerendus]

This is the video I needed today :) Neil's obsession with igniting powder over a bunsen burner is an inspiration to us all

[@Dlweta57]

Nice to see the prof still making these vids , I enjoy them immensly . thank you

[@Danger_mouse]

Oh wow Rhenium, now I have a story! 🙂 15 years ago I was part of a mining project in mid North Queensland, Australia called the Merlin Decline. We were in charge of completing an exploration decline for a client who had several large ore bodies defined underground, but no mining experience. Over 2yrs, we dug a decline down under a ridge and made entry points for future levels of the mine. The deposits were primarily Molybdenum closer to the surface, and then copper at greater depths. The cool part was there is a sizable 'block' of Rhenium oxides in one area, which we were instructed to mine up to and expose, so that the client could show potential customers. Unfortunately, due to the mine's location, lack of funding and infrastructure, it currently still sits in 'care and maintenance' awaiting some way of economically bring it to market.

[@Eddie42023]

I was unprepared for the phrase 'rock star' in a chemistry video. tip of the hat to you, professor.

[@truthsmiles]

I also love how the professor mentions it only to dismiss it in favor of "quite a famous sample". He doesn't have time for such silliness 🤣

[@ZoonCrypticon]

You have a great friend, this Anthony Litman, who is giving you so many valuable elements ! And Prof. Poliakoff is great as ever ! LORD Jesus Christ bless and save him and his family ! The same for Neil and his family ! Thank you both and your team very much !

[@DaveNBake]

Imma get blasted when i get home and binge watch 5 of these

[@PaulG.x]

Neil's office which has no windows and a bar below the ceiling from which he hangs when he needs to rest.

[@jeffstaples347]

Loving the new versions if these!! Always good to see the crew again.

[@RJayRoberts]

Great seeing updates to older videos. They keep getting better and more interesting.

[@periodicvideos]

Thank you!

[@timng9104]

i briefly worked on lithiated MoO3 and WO3, the most interesting oxide materials I ever worked on. I remembered Moly's video where you guys tried evaporating a Mo wire, but formed Mo oxides which were volatile instead. Now, ReS2 formed by volcanoes? wow, very very intrigued, i love it. ReS2 is also a highly studied 2D material, if you would like a sequel on Transition metal dichalcogenides

[@snarky_user]

RE: Rhenium

[@LarixusSnydes]

This element must be very important for sending e-mails...

[@filda2005]

@@LarixusSnydes underrated

[@matthewgriffiths9642]

When pig chemists send emails

[@lafcursiax]

Oh, this video has it all! Colorful compounds, a challenge for Neil, a celebrity sample with obligatory mineral pun, far-flung destinations, a public reception, and a soupçon of intrigue from the Professor ("these stories are lost in the mists of time..."). Easily the best Periodic Video yet!

[@sonaxaton]

the professor's umbrella is fabulous

[@screenoholic]

It is said that during the Second Age, Dark Lord Sauron forged the One Ring with Rhenium in the fires of Mount Doom.

[@PetraKann]

Fires?

[@rursus8354]

I it also said that Bilbo of Shire had a chain mail of Rhenium that was brigher than silver and lighter than iron. This chain mail was forged by the Dwarves with a technology that is still unknown today and use to flabbergast both modern chemists and physicists.

[@renerpho]

I thought that was a joke until I googled it.

[@stevengill1736]

So that's why they find it in volcanos!

[@ferretyluv]

@@renerphoI googled it and couldn’t Find anything about rhenium.

[@scrapmetalbuilds7932]

Can we please have a video of the lab or maybe how the fume cabinet works and where the fumes go and how they get filtered

[@moropikkuu]

In most regular labs the exhaust isn’t filtered.

[@ferretyluv]

It’s a fan. It’s a glorified range.

[@EhrenLoudermilk]

Dude that first reaction was honestly crazy looking. I had to rewind it a few times to really soak it all in. Thanks.

[@myriaddsystems]

So nice to see the Professor and the team again

[@rursus8354]

18:10: the fragments were not Rhenium. Wrong color!

[@tenspinya]

You've seen the periodic table but this is to go even further beyond!!

[@markhodge7]

My friends have no idea what a high level nerd I am :) I love this stuff, 45 years after my University Chemistry courses that I never put to use.

[@pingtimeproductions]

As an aerospace engineer in the 90s, I joined Rhenium parts by electron Beam welding. Fabrication was done with wire and plunge EDM. I also experimented with rocket motor debris filters made with Re CVD'ed onto reticulated vitreous carbon mesh.

[@pyrinikos3477]

Can we get a video show casing all of the professors favorite reactions and/or elements?

[@patrickbo2045]

Oh wow, Neil's living on the edge. When he dropped that lump of very dense metal into the test tube I had expected it to shatter and spray nitric acid everywhere, the KLONK was very audible! :D

[@Kohlenstoffkarbid]

Nice to see this new video about this very beautiful element featured. A sample of Rhenium lies next to me on my desk. It was the most expensive collectible i ever bought. The density and physical properties are really fascinating. But there is one detail which should not be missed. Rhenium is radioactive. But the resulting beta rays are some of the weakest of all radioactive substances (Less than 2700 electron volts). That means that this radiation is even to weak to leave the sample of rhenium. The lack of any other radioactive isotope make it scientifically important. Beta rays are accompanied by neutrinos. Low beta energy makes the energy of the neutrinos more obvious.

[@stamasd8500]

I was unable to discern the radioactivity of a rhenium pellet (20g) with a very large and sensitive detector, even after long acquisition times. In retrospect I should have expected that: the casing of the detector itself was absorbing whatever electrons were escaping the surface of the pellet.

[@karhukivi]

A liquid scintillator might work with a solution of a rhenium salt?

[@Kohlenstoffkarbid]

@@karhukivi A scintillator with Rhenium in it's structure is actually one of very few ways to detect the radiation. But it needs to be very sensitive and well shielded because any background radiation particle is much much stronger.

[@andybaldman]

Edutainment at its best. Nobody really learns anything truly useful. But it’s entertaining.

[@henriknilsson7851]

Really enjoyed this one. Purification of this element is an interesting process.

[@IrishEye]

I don't know why I find these videos so fascinating but I do. More please.

[@huntermclaren322]

how wonderful for the Professor and Neil to do elemental chemistry. Chemistry these days is mostly lasers and computers; this is mixing two substances together and seeing what sort of sparks fly

[@MrMartinSchou]

20:10 - "We all went to Neil's office, which has no windows [...]" Is that not called a closet?

[@ZoonCrypticon]

@3:20 You could use that dense precipitate for "Christmas Snow Globes" I assume.

[@unclvinny]

Wow, that yellow Rhenium substance at the end is eye-popping!

[@robertanderson3310]

The potassium hydroxide - amonium perrhenate reaction looked like a snow globe, very nice!

[@aidennoh6507]

Thanks for doing a video on my favorite element!

[@Bloated_Tony_Danza]

The pendant on my necklace is made of pure rhenium. Two square blocks about half as thick as they are wide, with square holes in them. Each block weighs 31 grams so it really is quite a unique necklace! Heavy too, it's one of my most prized possessions

[@taylorsims6169]

I love the framing of the shot at 17:36! Tiny person underneath the angle grinder. :)

[@cwtrain]

"I'm not a geologist." The smartest people you'll ever meet often lead with "I don't know."

[@lindakilmer2548]

I agree that it must be a Rhenium deposit deep in the volcano. I read about a fumarole that was studied because of the amount of gold in the vapour!! Somehow, knowing that Neil had so much trouble cutting the pellet makes me feel safer when I fly!!

[@YouSoSpice]

That rockstar joke was rad

[@rochellekesselring4865]

I'm sad I'm done watching this video for the first time. That was awesome

[@PhilGregoryFX]

Great video, packed with loads of really interesting info, which tbh, is pretty hard to find these days. I got a lot out of this one, very educational and a bit of a gem, so many thanks to the team for producing such brilliant content. Cheers :-)

[@periodicvideos]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Thoran666]

Thanks for more elemental education and entertainment. Neil and his burning powders should get their own video.

[@mhyzon1]

11:22 Nice Bill & Ted reference 😂

[@periodicvideos]

;)

[@moonbeam8438]

Soonest I've been to a video release!! :D

[@karhukivi]

Geological-chemical processes take place over incredibly long periods of time and often at high pressures and temperatures. This is why fractionation can take place and differentially concentrate and deposit minerals. The P-T can be reproduced in the lab to a certain extent, but the time scale is the one factor that is difficult to replicate. For example barium sulphate is considered by chemists as "insoluble in water", but in nature deposits of pure barite can be concentrated and deposited from brines at temperature of only 60C as happens in the vein deposits of lead and zinc and fluorite in Yorkshire.

[@stevengill1736]

I'd love to try that rhenium phenanthroline complex as an indicator in the Belusov-Zhaboutinsky reaction. In my lab days I worked with oscillating reactions a bit, and found a couple other redox indicators besides the traditional ferroin for the usual BZ manifestations. Bathophenanthroline iron works fine, and I'll bet the rhenium analog would work and would be visible under UV light, the usual target patterns visible with it's yellow fluorescence - you should give it a try. (another analog would be rhenium (tris)bipyridyl for the usual ruthenium(tris)bipyridyl which is used for all sorts of things.....

[@thesuccessfulone]

Happy birthday Rhenium, rest in peace Genrikh

[@tbcdymond]

I was not prepared for a reference to Wyld Stallyns!!!!

[@vernonbrechin4207]

I learned a great deal from this presentation. I will be looking it up in Wikipedia to learn of other applications of this element. My guess is that radioactive isotopes of it may be found as a fission product.

[@shantiharrison7339]

Glad to see you're still alive and well chap

[@NightWolfx03]

You guys are awesome, I have always enjoyed these videos

[@bigsarge2085]

Always fascinating!

[@wonderboyfman]

On Mythbusters, Adam Savage remarked, "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." This video embodies that perfectly with the wild attempts to make any mark on the rhenium, culminating with him burning the resulting dust just whether it was product or waste because he likes sprinkling powder on bunsen burners

[@Ninjahat]

Thx Martyn, Niel and Brady 🎉😊

[@rhoddryice5412]

17:06 Is that an oops by Neil?

[@uspockdad6429]

lol. Yup, first time I’ve ever heard Neil say anything. It’s a periodic table miracle.

[@johnl2727]

Sir Martyn. Congratulations on another great video. Greetings from Canton, Ohio.

[@p.f.3014]

Fascinating as ever but I'd like to know more about its uses.

[@Nethershaw]

6:33 Such a delightful face from the Professor as I have never seen.

[@milos-endofstory]

Very nice video Mr. Professor ❤.

[@jhonbus]

4:02 Not Neil wearing nitrile gloves when working with conc nitric acid, surely?!

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

WAAAIIIT is this an actual new Periodic Video episode?? Is Prof. Poliakoff a vampire?

[@Laochraiceann]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm.

[@PaulG.x]

Ida Noddack , I bet there was a lot of lab humour related to her name. "This is Ida Noddack" "Well now you know"

[@kateonianlaw1127]

I would love to have all the individual elements made into wire strands and tested how they sound when played on a violin, other string instrument, or a similar test. At least for my curiosity.

[@periodicvideos]

Interesting idea

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

And so today I learned a little tidbit about KGHM's business.

[@pattheplanter]

84/85 is a surprising age for a volcano explorer.

[@organicgroove23]

You guys are the rock stars. !!

[@timstoffel4799]

The Keck Museum on the campus of the University of Nevada - Reno is a significant rock and mineral collection associated with the University's school of mining technology. They have a sample of Rheniite and it is my favorite specimin in that vast collection. I like it because it is the most unusual ore of an element in their entire collection.

[@Ithirahad]

That is a very specific green colour. Not sure I've seen anything like it elsewhere.

[@andrewplumb6544]

I wonder if it is the green seen when a rocket engine bell nozzle degrades unintentionally.

[@Ithirahad]

@@andrewplumb6544 Usually, the similar colour in rocket exhausts comes from ionized copper from (insufficiently) liquid-cooled surfaces mixed with incandescing combustion products. It can usually be distinguished from rhenium fires by being less white.

[@ekspatriat]

Nice to see Brian Mays' dad is into science too!!

[@dafoex]

I'm rather impressed by that brown gas. It's a really rather pleasant shade of amber to my eyes.

[@dahemac]

Student Natalia for the win!!!

[@drues1]

Neil's an interesting character. I'd like to see his practical chemistry experience against one of the academics

[@bluefloyd1]

Anyone started a campaign to get Neil an office with windows?

[@ssl3546]

I laughed at loud at "rock star." Good one.

[@ianferguson3998]

Two in a month! Yes!!!

[@dmsanct]

noob chemists: chemistry is complex, you see this bond here god tier chemists: the colors are so pretty

[@DeconvertedMan]

I love these videos and the fuzzy hair. Professor is awesome love him. :)

[@adrianincroydon71]

Fascinating video. Thank you 😊