Rhenium

Rhenium (Re) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years

Rhenium’s research intensity stands at about 58% of its own all-time peak, a level reached in 1969, which lies outside this ten-year window.

Research intensity ran from about 70% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 58% in 2026 — a steady decline, and the all-time peak (1969) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, rhenium has a mid-sized research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 1,611 in 2016 to about 3,085 in 2025 (1.91x). That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research even as its own count rose.

The material research communities for rhenium in the last five years are defined by specific applications where the element plays a distinct role. The largest is Rhenium Extraction and Recovery from Molybdenum Streams, a subcommunity focused on separating rhenium from molybdenum and recovering it from aqueous solutions using perrhenate chemistry and ionic liquids. Here, rhenium is one strand of a broader community, with about 19% of its papers involving rhenium. This group accounts for about 13.8% of rhenium's recent research, a share that has remained steady compared to the previous period. A key paper in this area, "Rhenium in Heterogeneous Catalysis: A Rising Star for Hydrogenation Reactions" (2024), has been cited about 60 times, while an earlier study on capturing perrhenate from aqueous solution (2019) has been cited over 260 times.

A second major area is Rhenium Dichalcogenide Nanosheets for 2D Electronics, where researchers characterize rhenium disulfide and diselenide monolayers for use in field-effect transistors and hydrogen evolution. Rhenium is a minor presence in this much larger community, appearing in about 3% of its papers. This subcommunity represents about 13.5% of rhenium's recent research, also holding steady. Notable work includes a 2025 study on deep ultraviolet photodetectors based on van der Waals heterostructures, cited about 59 times, and a 2024 DFT study on gas sensing using ReS2 monolayers, cited over 100 times.

The third significant community is Rhenium Tricarbonyl Photophysics for Anticancer Agents, which designs luminescent rhenium tricarbonyl complexes to evaluate anticancer activity. Rhenium is a minor presence here as well, involved in about 4% of the community's papers. This group accounts for about 12.9% of rhenium's recent research, a share that has remained steady. A 2022 review in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on luminescent transition metal complexes has been cited over 280 times, and a 2021 study on a rhenium(I) photosensitizer for anti-tumor immunity has been cited over 240 times.

Overall, the composition of rhenium's research has remained stable, with no single community gaining or losing significant share. The remainder of the element's research, comprising about 59.8% of recent work, is distributed across various other fields, including electrocatalysts for water splitting and geochronology, but these do not form a single dominant cluster.

For a deeper look at the current state of rhenium research, including the most recent monthly trends and executive summaries, consult the element's standing reports.