Production of high-purity ammonium perrhenate for W-Re-Ni-Fe heavy alloys

The paper presents the developed method for purification of ammonium perrhenate solutions by ion-exchange method on strongly acidic cation-exchange resin C160. The developed method is characterized by high, over 95% efficiency of sorption of potassium, sodium, calcium, iron, magnesium and lead ions, and high efficiency of regeneration of the resin with 32% solution of nitric(V) acid. In that way ammonium perrhenate was produced of the following composition: 69.4% Re, <0.0005% Ca, <0.001% K, <0.0005% Mg, <0.0005% Cu, <0.0005% Na, <0.0005% Mo, <0.0005% Ni, <0.0005% Pb, <0.0005% Fe. Some selected results of the experiments into possibilities for application of that specifically purified ammonium perrhenate in production of W-Re-Ni-Fe heavy alloys are presented as well as physical and mechanical properties of the heavy alloys. It was established that the purified ammonium perrhenate is a proper material for production of heavy alloys, and the generated sinters can be used in manufacture of armour-piercing discarding sabots. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.