rhenium-187

isotope

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July 13, 2026

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Rhenium-187 is a radioactive isotope of rhenium that decays into osmium-187. This decay process is the basis for the rhenium-osmium dating method, which is used to determine the age of certain minerals, particularly molybdenite. Molybdenite is significant because it has a high ratio of rhenium to osmium, and the osmium present is almost entirely radiogenic osmium-187. This method has been used to date ores ranging from 38 million to 3 billion years old. Rhenium itself is a very rare, dense metal with a high melting point, used in alloys for turbine blades, thermocouples, and as catalysts. Natural rhenium is a mix of stable rhenium-185 and radioactive rhenium-187, which has a half-life of 4.1 × 10¹⁰ years.12

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spectroscopy
Thermal atomization
The isotope rhenium-187 (¹⁸⁷Re) decays to osmium-187 (¹⁸⁷Os) having a half-life of 43 billion years; hence, the Re-Os system can be used to determine when geologic materials were solidified in Earth.
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The isotope rhenium-187 (¹⁸⁷Re) decays to osmium-187 (¹⁸⁷Os) having a half-life of 43 billion years; hence, the Re-Os system can be used to determine when geologic materials were solidified in Earth.
Read More