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Topic · Mechanical Engineering

Advanced materials and composites

Advanced materials and composites is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 58k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the synthesis, sintering, and mechanical properties of cemented carbides, particularly tungsten carbide-based materials. It covers topics such as nanostructured materials, grain growth inhibition, spark plasma sintering, and the microstructure of cemented carbides. The research also delves into the application of these materials in hardmetal tools.

  • Cemented Carbides
  • Sintering
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Nanostructured Materials
  • Tungsten Carbide
  • Microstructure
  • Grain Growth Inhibition
  • Spark Plasma Sintering
  • Liquid Phase Sintering
  • Hardmetal Tools
Research works
58k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+15%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
58% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Advanced materials and composites

Which countries lead Advanced materials and composites research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (5.9k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 5.9k works
  2. 2 India 1.1k works
  3. 3 Russia 905 works
  4. 4 United States 678 works
  5. 5 Germany 334 works
  6. 6 Japan 324 works
  7. 7 Türkiye 304 works
  8. 8 Iran 224 works
  9. 9 South Korea 206 works
  10. 10 Ukraine 202 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: 58.4%India: 10.4%Russia: 8.9%United States: 6.7%6 others listed: 15.7%58%largest
China5,935 · 58.4%India1,056 · 10.4%Russia905 · 8.9%United States678 · 6.7%6 others listed1,594 · 15.7%

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

Which institutions lead Advanced materials and composites research?

By volume in 2022-now, Russian Academy of Sciences publishes the most Advanced materials and composites research, followed by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Central South University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 368 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 329 works
  3. 3 Central South UniversityChina 267 works
  4. 4 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 191 works
  5. 5 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 178 works
  6. 6 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 162 works
  7. 7 Northeastern UniversityChina 126 works
  8. 8 National Academy of Sciences of UkraineUkraine 105 works
  9. 9 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 105 works
  10. 10 Kunming University of Science and TechnologyChina 81 works

Who are the leading researchers in Advanced materials and composites?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Advanced materials and composites include Yury G. Gogotsi, Yi Ping Cui and Xiaogang Wang.

  1. 1 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  2. 2 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  3. 3 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  4. 4 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k citations
  5. 5 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  6. 6 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  7. 7 Jiaguo Yu China 207k citations
  8. 8 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  9. 9 Seeram Ramakrishna Singapore 186k citations
  10. 10 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Advanced materials and composites?

The most cited paper in Advanced materials and composites is "A Critical Evaluation of Indentation Techniques for Measuring Fracture Toughness: I, Direct Crack Measurements" (G. R. Anstis, Prapaipan Chantikul, Brian R. Lawn et al., 1981), with 5,576 citations. Next come "Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials" (4,611) and "Indentation size effects in crystalline materials: A law for strain gradient plasticity" (4,401).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A Critical Evaluation of Indentation Techniques for Measuring Fracture Toughness: I, Direct Crack Measurements G. R. Anstis, Prapaipan Chantikul, Brian R. Lawn et al. · Journal of the American Ceramic Society Sep 1981 5,576
2 Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials Marc André Meyers, Avanish Mishra, David John Benson · Progress in Materials Science 18 Nov 2005 4,611
3 Indentation size effects in crystalline materials: A law for strain gradient plasticity William D. Nix, Huajian Gao · Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids Open access Mar 1998 4,401
4 The deformation of plastically non-homogeneous materials Michael Farries Ashby · Philosophical magazine Feb 1970 4,309
5 Titanium alloys in total joint replacement—a materials science perspective Marc Long, Henry J. Rack · Biomaterials Sep 1998 3,527
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Advanced materials and composites research done?

The largest centres of Advanced materials and composites research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Changsha (China) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Tomsk, Chernogolovka and Leoben.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 943 works
  2. 2 Xi'anChina 521 works
  3. 3 ChangshaChina 358 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 262 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 246 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 242 works
  7. 7 HarbinChina 236 works
  8. 8 ShenyangChina 207 works
  9. 9 NanjingChina 199 works
  10. 10 ChengduChina 188 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. TomskRU · 60.2 works117×
  2. ChernogolovkaRU · 55.5 works46×
  3. LeobenAT · 24.8 works19×
  4. Ma'anshan CityCN · 36.8 works16×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Advanced materials and composites than the world average.

See Advanced materials and composites on the map

Where is the best place to study Advanced materials and composites?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, City University of Hong Kong and Central South University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.71%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →City University of H…Northwestern Polytec…Harbin Institute of …Central South Univer…
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.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 74.926.5%13.2×162 +40.2%
2City University of Hong KongChina 70.837.4%2.8×17 +34.4%
3Central South UniversityChina 64.911.8%12.8×267 +48.7%
4Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 64.013.3%10.1×178 +48.5%
5University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 61.812.9%22.8×191 +43.9%
6Northeastern UniversityChina 59.913.8%13.1×126 +30.4%
7Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 59.917.0%5.6×105 +20.5%
8Bartin UniversityTürkiye 59.042.8%8.5×9 +6.6%
9Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and TechnologyIndia 58.331.8%20.7×11 +356.1%
10Dalian University of TechnologyChina 57.819.8%5.5×56 +61.5%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Advanced materials and composites, country by country

Is Advanced materials and composites research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 15% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced materials and composites.

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 Advanced materials and composites as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.062% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Advanced materials and composites0.053% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Advanced materials and composites 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%Advanced materials and composites9.7% 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.

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