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Subfield · Materials Science

Surfaces, Coatings and Films research

Surfaces, Coatings and Films is a subfield of Materials Science. Science Explorer counts 167k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: any adherent layer that covers a surface.

Research works
167k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
17k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
4
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+4%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
50% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Surfaces, Coatings and Films

What is Surfaces, Coatings and Films research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Bioinspired Design, Superhydrophobic Surfaces, Mussel-Inspired, Surface Chemistry, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. Gaining share since 2011-15: Bioinspired Design, Superhydrophobic Surfaces. Losing share: Antireflective Coatings, Nanostructures, Mussel-Inspired, Surface Chemistry.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 8 words, with their numbers
  1. Bioinspired Design12k▲ 1.67×1 topic
  2. Superhydrophobic Surfaces12k▲ 1.67×1 topic
  3. Mussel-Inspired5,432▼ 0.76×1 topic
  4. Surface Chemistry5,432▼ 0.76×1 topic
  5. Scanning Electron Microscopy5,228▼ 0.84×1 topic
  6. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy5,228▼ 0.84×1 topic
  7. Antireflective Coatings3,798▼ 0.63×1 topic
  8. Nanostructures3,798▼ 0.63×1 topic

Which countries lead Surfaces, Coatings and Films research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and the United Kingdom rank highest in Surfaces, Coatings and Films. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (9.4k and 3k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #2 all time 1.25× citation excellence · 1.11× journals · 100% breadth 13.3% top 10% · 8.1k works
  2. 2 United States #1 all time 0.94× citation excellence · 1.64× journals · 100% breadth 9.0% top 10% · 2.6k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #4 all time 1.17× citation excellence · 1.34× journals · 100% breadth 11.3% top 10% · 548 works
  4. 4 Germany #3 all time 0.84× citation excellence · 1.21× journals · 100% breadth 7.2% top 10% · 1k works
  5. 5 Australia #9 all time 1.29× citation excellence · 1.31× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 234 works
  6. 6 South Korea #11 all time 0.85× citation excellence · 1.02× journals · 100% breadth 9.2% top 10% · 644 works
  7. 7 Netherlands #7 all time 1.13× citation excellence · 1.43× journals · 100% breadth 9.3% top 10% · 211 works
  8. 8 Canada #8 all time 1.05× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth 9.7% top 10% · 379 works
  9. 9 France #6 all time 0.72× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth 6.4% top 10% · 679 works
  10. 10 Spain #12 all time 1.04× citation excellence · 1.00× journals · 100% breadth 9.5% top 10% · 246 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 18 countries ranked in Surfaces, Coatings and Films. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Surfaces, Coatings and Films

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 9.4k works
  2. 2 United States 3k works
  3. 3 Japan 1.1k works
  4. 4 Germany 1.1k works
  5. 5 India 1k works
  6. 6 France 757 works
  7. 7 South Korea 756 works
  8. 8 Russia 630 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 618 works
  10. 10 Canada 427 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 49.9%United States: 15.8%Japan: 6.0%Germany: 5.9%6 others listed: 22.4%50%largest
China9,425 · 49.9%United States2,979 · 15.8%Japan1,139 · 6.0%Germany1,120 · 5.9%6 others listed4,232 · 22.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Surfaces, Coatings and Films research?

Chinese Academy of Sciences (China) ranks first in Surfaces, Coatings and Films on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Tsinghua University and Max Planck Society.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #1 all time 15.5% top 10% · 589 works
  2. 2 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #12 all time 14.9% top 10% · 147 works
  3. 3 Max Planck Society Germany · Munich · #3 all time 16.2% top 10% · 77 works
  4. 4 Donghua University China · Shanghai · #32 all time 19.7% top 10% · 99 works
  5. 5 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #10 all time 15.6% top 10% · 132 works
  6. 6 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #20 all time 16.7% top 10% · 126 works
  7. 7 University of Science and Technology of China China · Hefei · #19 all time 14.0% top 10% · 81 works
  8. 8 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #24 all time 13.7% top 10% · 94 works
  9. 9 Sichuan University China · Chengdu · #52 all time 15.1% top 10% · 132 works
  10. 10 Jilin University China · Changchun · #35 all time 15.9% top 10% · 100 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 27 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Surfaces, Coatings and Films.

Top 100 Surfaces, Coatings and Films institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 682 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 374 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 235 works
  4. 4 Tsinghua UniversityChina 161 works
  5. 5 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 151 works
  6. 6 Sichuan UniversityChina 149 works
  7. 7 Zhejiang UniversityChina 141 works
  8. 8 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 136 works
  9. 9 South China University of TechnologyChina 121 works
  10. 10 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 116 works

Who are the leading researchers in Surfaces, Coatings and Films?

Counting only their work in Surfaces, Coatings and Films, Lei Jiang, Frank S Caruso and Zhiguang Guo have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Lei Jiang China · #4,874 worldwide overall 130.0 of 286 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Frank S Caruso Australia · #8,476 worldwide overall 64.4 of 133 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Zhiguang Guo China · #28,632 worldwide overall 56.6 of 175 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Krzysztof Matyjaszewski United States · #6,600 worldwide overall 51.3 of 137 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Helmuth Möhwald Germany · #57,920 worldwide overall 47.9 of 136 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Jianyong Yu China · #8,901 worldwide overall 31.8 of 61 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Feng Zhou China · #48,875 worldwide overall 37.0 of 118 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Bin Ding China · #4,003 worldwide overall 30.7 of 56 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Steven Peter Armes United Kingdom · #23,135 worldwide overall 34.7 of 104 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Shaoyi Jiang United States · #8,868 worldwide overall 27.2 of 40 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Surfaces, Coatings and Films alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 554,970 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Surfaces, Coatings and Films researchers

What are the most cited papers in Surfaces, Coatings and Films?

The most cited paper in Surfaces, Coatings and Films is "THE USE OF LEAD CITRATE AT HIGH pH AS AN ELECTRON-OPAQUE STAIN IN ELECTRON MICROSCOPY" (Edward S. Reynolds, 1963), with 25,107 citations. Next come "Optical Constants of the Noble Metals" (20,103) and "ATHENA , ARTEMIS , HEPHAESTUS : data analysis for X-ray absorption spectroscopy using IFEFFIT" (16,947).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 THE USE OF LEAD CITRATE AT HIGH pH AS AN ELECTRON-OPAQUE STAIN IN ELECTRON MICROSCOPY Edward S. Reynolds · The Journal of Cell Biology Open access Apr 1963 25,107
2 Optical Constants of the Noble Metals P. B. Johnson, R. W. Christy · Physical review. B, Solid state 15 Dec 1972 20,103
3 ATHENA , ARTEMIS , HEPHAESTUS : data analysis for X-ray absorption spectroscopy using IFEFFIT Bruce Ravel, Matthew G. Newville · Journal of Synchrotron Radiation Open access 15 Jun 2005 16,947
4 Electron-energy-loss spectra and the structural stability of nickel oxide: An LSDA+U study S. L. Dudarev, Gianluigi A. Botton, Sergey Yu. Savrasov et al. · Physical review. B, Condensed matter 15 Jan 1998 15,337
5 A low-viscosity epoxy resin embedding medium for electron microscopy Arthur R. Spurr · Journal of Ultrastructure Research 1969 12,956
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Surfaces, Coatings and Films research done?

The largest centres of Surfaces, Coatings and Films research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Nanjing (China) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Upton.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 1.6k works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 664 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 447 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 432 works
  5. 5 ChengduChina 367 works
  6. 6 WuhanChina 365 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 362 works
  8. 8 HangzhouChina 361 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 355 works
  10. 10 TianjinChina 321 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. UptonUS · 24.4 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Surfaces, Coatings and Films than the world average.

See Surfaces, Coatings and Films on the map

Surfaces, Coatings and Films research by country

The best places for Surfaces, Coatings and Films research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Surfaces, Coatings and Films?

Among universities, judged by research, Tsinghua University, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Stanford University score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 15.71%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Stanford UniversityZhejiang UniversityUniversity of Chines…Tsinghua University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Tsinghua UniversityChina 76.9#2 (#12)14.3%3.4×161 +6.1%
2University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 76.1#5 (#10)15.0%4.5×151 +27.9%
3Stanford UniversityUnited States 71.1- (#2)18.2%1.5×45 -33.6%
4Zhejiang UniversityChina 66.5#6 (#20)15.8%2.5×141 +19.8%
5Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 66.2- (#4)14.9%3.3×48 -22.8%
6Donghua UniversityChina 66.0#4 (#32)18.3%14.9×113 +26.0%
7University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 61.7#7 (#19)13.7%3.7×90 +15.0%
8ETH ZurichSwitzerland 61.5- (#5)15.7%2.5×35 -37.1%
9Harvard UniversityUnited States 60.4- (#7)17.4%0.5×30 +5.8%
10Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 58.3#8 (#24)13.8%1.8×108 +7.7%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Surfaces, Coatings and Films, country by country

Is Surfaces, Coatings and Films research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 4% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Surface Modification and Superhydrophobicity and Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Surfaces, Coatings and Films as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.095% in 2024.

still counting0.20%0.40%Surfaces, Coatings and Films0.094% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Surfaces, Coatings and Films over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Surfaces, Coatings and Films9.8% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Surface Modification and Superhydrophobicity+22%
  2. Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques+3%
  3. Optical Coatings and Gratings-12%
  4. Polymer Surface Interaction Studies-15%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Surfaces, Coatings and Films include?

Electron and X-Ray Spect…61kElectron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques: 61k fractional worksSurface Modification and…42kSurface Modification and Superhydrophobicity: 42k fractional worksOptical Coatings and Gratings: 32k fractional worksPolymer Surface Interaction Studies: 32k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

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Who leads Surfaces, Coatings and Films, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Surfaces, Coatings and Films, for a post or a slide.

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1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

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