High melting point and inherent ductility (toughness) over a wide range of temperature has made Rhenium an engineering material of choice for several thrust chambers in propulsion systems. Although the material remains tough at high temperatures, it still can transform to several oxides. As many as eight different oxides have been reported in literature.@footnote 1,2@ When characterized using ESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis) these oxides show large shifts in the Re 4f line positions. While this unique property could be used as a tool for oxide characterization, literature indicates that only a few of these oxides have been characterized.@footnote 3@ Current work focuses on characterizing oxides of Rhenium using ESCA. Spectral line (Re 4f) shifts have been measured for various oxides and the results have been compared with the line positions of real-time oxidation products from space hardware.
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@footnote 1@ Druce,J. G. F. in "Rhenium", Cambridge, At The University Press, 1948,pp.29-35 @footnote 2@ Lebedev, K. B. in "The Chemistry of Rhenium", Translated by Ronson, L. and Woolf, A. A., Butterworths, London, 1962, pp. 13 -17. @footnote 3@ Broclawik, E., Haber, J., and Ungier, L. in "Electronic Structure of Rhenium Oxides" J. of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Vol. 42, 1981, pp. 203 -208.