Rhenium hexafluoride
Rhenium hexafluoride, also rhenium fluoride, is a compound of rhenium and fluorine and one of the seventeen known binary hexafluorides.Synthesis
Rhenium hexafluoride is made by combining rhenium heptafluoride with additional rhenium metal at 300 °C in a pressure vessel.Description
Rhenium hexafluoride is a liquid at room temperature. At 18.5 °C, it freezes into a yellow solid. The boiling point is 33.7 °C.
The solid structure measured at −140 °C is orthorhombic space group Pnma. Lattice parameters are a = 9.417 Å, b = 8.570 Å, and c = 4.965 Å. There are four formula units per unit cell, giving a density of 4.94 g·cm−3.
The ReF6 molecule itself has octahedral molecular geometry, which has point group. The Re–F bond length is 1.823 Å.Use
Rhenium hexafluoride is a commercial material used in the electronics industry for depositing films of rhenium.
