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Topic · Mechanical Engineering

Advanced Materials and Mechanics

Advanced Materials and Mechanics is a research topic within Mechanical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 27k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the advancements in 4D printing technologies, focusing on biomimetic materials, polymer films, liquid crystal elastomers, shape memory polymers, actuators, wrinkling patterns, bioinspired materials, soft robotics, hydrogels, and mechanical metamaterials. The research covers a wide range of applications and functionalities enabled by the development of these innovative materials and printing techniques.

  • Biomimetic
  • Polymer Films
  • Liquid Crystal Elastomers
  • Shape Memory Polymers
  • Actuators
  • Wrinkling Patterns
  • Bioinspired Materials
  • Soft Robotics
  • Hydrogels
  • Mechanical Metamaterials
Research works
27k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+50%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
51% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Advanced Materials and Mechanics

Which countries lead Advanced Materials and Mechanics research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (4.1k and 1.4k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4.1k works
  2. 2 United States 1.4k works
  3. 3 Japan 455 works
  4. 4 India 414 works
  5. 5 South Korea 412 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 358 works
  7. 7 Germany 317 works
  8. 8 France 252 works
  9. 9 Italy 239 works
  10. 10 Canada 146 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: 50.5%United States: 17.4%Japan: 5.6%India: 5.1%6 others listed: 21.3%51%largest
China4,087 · 50.5%United States1,408 · 17.4%Japan455 · 5.6%India414 · 5.1%6 others listed1,724 · 21.3%

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

Which institutions lead Advanced Materials and Mechanics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Advanced Materials and Mechanics research, followed by Harbin Institute of Technology and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 227 works
  2. 2 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 142 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 127 works
  4. 4 Zhejiang UniversityChina 103 works
  5. 5 Tsinghua UniversityChina 90 works
  6. 6 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 85 works
  7. 7 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 81 works
  8. 8 Southeast UniversityChina 67 works
  9. 9 Donghua UniversityChina 59 works
  10. 10 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 59 works

Who are the leading researchers in Advanced Materials and Mechanics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Advanced Materials and Mechanics include Zhong Lin Wang, Kostya S. Novoselov and Yury G. Gogotsi.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  3. 3 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  4. 4 Róbert Langer United States 303k citations
  5. 5 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  6. 6 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  7. 7 Ben Zhong Tang China 261k citations
  8. 8 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k citations
  9. 9 Rodney S. Ruoff United States 231k citations
  10. 10 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 227k 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 Mechanics?

The most cited paper in Advanced Materials and Mechanics is "Self-Assembly at All Scales" (George M. Whitesides, Bartosz A. Grzybowski, 2002), with 7,462 citations. Next come "Equation of State for Nonattracting Rigid Spheres" (5,290) and "Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide): experiment, theory and application" (5,139).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Self-Assembly at All Scales George M. Whitesides, Bartosz A. Grzybowski · Science 29 Mar 2002 7,462
2 Equation of State for Nonattracting Rigid Spheres Norman F. Carnahan, K.E. Starling · The Journal of Chemical Physics 15 Jul 1969 5,290
3 Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide): experiment, theory and application Howard G. Schild · Progress in Polymer Science 1992 5,139
4 Materials and Mechanics for Stretchable Electronics John Allen Rogers, Takao Someya, Yonggang Y. Huang · Science 25 Mar 2010 5,039
5 Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups. H. S. M. Coxeter, J. H. Conway, Neil J.A. Sloane · American Mathematical Monthly Jun 1989 3,486
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Advanced Materials and Mechanics research done?

The largest centres of Advanced Materials and Mechanics 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 Eindhoven and Qinhuangdao.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 661 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 306 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 267 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 234 works
  5. 5 HangzhouChina 211 works
  6. 6 HarbinChina 184 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 172 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 172 works
  9. 9 GuangzhouChina 156 works
  10. 10 WuhanChina 154 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. EindhovenNL · 33.1 works7.9×
  2. QinhuangdaoCN · 28.9 works7.4×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Advanced Materials and Mechanics on the map

Where is the best place to study Advanced Materials and Mechanics?

Among universities, judged by research, RMIT University, Nottingham Trent University and Anhui Jianzhu University score highest, combining 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 24.46%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Nottingham Trent Uni…RMIT UniversityAnhui Jianzhu Univer…Harbin Institute of …
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.

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
1RMIT UniversityAustralia 71.738.4%6.8×22 +116.9%
2Nottingham Trent UniversityUnited Kingdom 67.742.2%8.7×11 +396.6%
3Anhui Jianzhu UniversityChina 67.330.4%56.9×42 +844.0%
4Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 64.515.2%10.4×142 +46.1%
5Zhejiang UniversityChina 61.115.4%4.6×103 +49.4%
6National University of SingaporeSingapore 60.819.5%4.8×48 +71.4%
7Nanjing Forestry UniversityChina 60.726.6%7.9×30 +175.5%
8Tsinghua UniversityChina 60.616.5%4.7×90 +39.0%
9Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 60.618.7%5.6×37 +66.7%
10Tianjin UniversityChina 58.821.7%5.7×57 +67.4%

Universities only. The score blends 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 Mechanics, country by country

Is Advanced Materials and Mechanics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 50% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced Materials and Mechanics.

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 Mechanics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.039% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Advanced Materials and Mechanics0.042% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Advanced Materials and Mechanics 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 Mechanics9.8% 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.

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