Applications
Medical
Medical Devices: Bone Implants, Cardiac Stents. Medical Cosmetology: Cosmetic Prostheses. Pharmaceuticals: Used in radioactive therapeutic drug 188Re.
Application：
1、Pharmaceut：
Firstly, catalysts for pharmaceutical manufacturing (such as methyltrioxorhenium) have good solubility and can dissolve in most organic solutions. They are indispensable intermediates in pharmaceutical manufacturing and are a new type of green, environmentally friendly, and efficient catalyst. Secondly, in the treatment of bone cancer, rhenium is also used in an anti-bone cancer metastasis injection developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Bone metastasis in advanced cancer can cause severe pain. Rhenium-containing injections quickly concentrate in the bones, especially in the diseased bones, and exert an analgesic effect through their gamma radiation, greatly improving patients’ quality of life.
2、Medical implant：
New material molybdenum-rhenium alloy containing rhenium, as a medical implant, can be used in adult spinal deformity surgery. Compared with traditional implant materials, molybdenum-rhenium alloy has obvious advantages and is an ideal alternative. The lowest yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of molybdenum-rhenium alloy, which has the highest strength, are both greater than 1300 MPa, with a ductility percentage of up to double digits. Therefore, smaller and lighter implants can be designed, reducing adverse effects and disturbances to surrounding bone tissue, and helping to avoid protrusion and better integrate with the natural shape of the bone. At the same time, its good ductility and strength allow doctors to trim the shape of the implant according to the patient’s specific bone structure, reducing the risk of implant fracture and greatly increasing safety. It also does not contain nickel, cobalt, chromium, or other elements, so there are no issues with biocompatibility or allergic reactions.
In addition, molybdenum-rhenium alloy has low magnetic susceptibility and thus produces minimal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) artifacts, making it promising for medical implants. Currently, new molybdenum-rhenium alloy implant materials have obtained FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) approval.
3、Medical device：
It mainly involves the application of new materials containing rhenium in this field. Among them, medical devices made of molybdenum-rhenium alloy are considered the newest generation of biomedical materials with the most development potential, commonly used for orthopedic implants and cardiac stents. This material improves the radial strength, yield strength, and ultimate tensile strength of medical devices, enhances their stress-strain characteristics, crimping and expansion properties, flexibility, elasticity, strength, durability, hardness, and longitudinal elongation performance. Moreover, molybdenum-rhenium alloy reduces the nickel content and can even achieve nickel-free, greatly improving the material’s biocompatibility. According to the theory that the radiological absorptivity is directly proportional to the material density, molybdenum-rhenium alloy stents have higher radiological absorptivity, providing better radiological visibility than 316L stainless steel and cobalt-based alloys. During implantation, doctors can see more clearly, thereby improving the accuracy and safety of manipulation. Meanwhile, due to this characteristic, when applied to implantable medical devices, such as vascular stent materials, it can reduce stent wall thickness without compromising overall stent performance, decreasing stent irritation to blood vessels and reducing the amount of metal implants. Even compared with some medical devices made of conventional stainless steel or cobalt and chromium alloys, it reduces the volume, capacity, or weight of medical devices.
Medical linear materials made of tungsten-rhenium alloy are also widely used, typically for precision components in laparoscopic (minimally invasive) or endoscopic surgical equipment. Tungsten-rhenium alloy needles can also be used as specialized accessories for medical LEEP knives.
4、Medical target material：
Rhenium is also used in the rotating anode target of CT tube. The anode target, an essential component of an X-ray generator, is divided into fixed and rotating types. The fixed anode consists of target material, anode body, etc. When a focused electron beam generated by the cathode irradiates a point on the anode, X-rays are produced, generating high heat. It is usually a consumable part that requires regular replacement. For the rotating anode target, when the electron beam irradiates the anode target material, the constantly rotating anode effectively prevents itself from being burned by the electron beam and can continuously provide a new irradiated target surface, which not only increases the utilization rate of the anode target material, increases the heat dissipation area of the target surface, but also greatly improves the power of the X-ray tube for uninterrupted long-term use. When the CT tube is working, the anode target generates X-rays under the bombardment of high-energy electron beams, but the energy conversion efficiency is very low, with only about 1% of the energy converted into X-ray energy, and the remaining 99% converted into thermal energy, causing local temperatures to reach up to 2600°C. Therefore, the rotating anode target needs to have high temperature strength, good thermal shock resistance, and fast heat dissipation, which matches the characteristics of rhenium elements. Therefore, rhenium is widely used in the rotating anode target of CT tubes.