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Topic · Environmental Chemistry

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is a research topic within Environmental Chemistry. Science Explorer counts 24k research works in it since 1950. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the principles and applications of green chemistry, with a particular emphasis on sustainable chemistry, solvent selection, green engineering, metrics for assessing greenness, catalysis, life cycle assessment, circular economy, process mass intensity, medicinal chemistry, and environmental impact. The papers cover various aspects of incorporating green chemistry into research, development, and manufacturing processes across the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

  • Sustainable Chemistry
  • Solvent Selection
  • Green Engineering
  • Metrics
  • Catalysis
  • Life Cycle Assessment
  • Circular Economy
  • Process Mass Intensity
  • Medicinal Chemistry
  • Environmental Impact
Research works
24k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+29%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
19% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Which countries lead Chemistry and Chemical Engineering research?

By volume, the United States and India publish the most (567 and 559 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 567 works
  2. 2 India 559 works
  3. 3 China 518 works
  4. 4 Brazil 298 works
  5. 5 Germany 272 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 188 works
  7. 7 Italy 161 works
  8. 8 Spain 148 works
  9. 9 France 146 works
  10. 10 Russia 118 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.

United States: 19.1%India: 18.8%China: 17.4%Brazil: 10.0%6 others listed: 34.7%19%largest
United States567 · 19.1%India559 · 18.8%China518 · 17.4%Brazil298 · 10.0%6 others listed1,033 · 34.7%

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

Which institutions lead Chemistry and Chemical Engineering research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Chemistry and Chemical Engineering research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 55 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 34 works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 31 works
  4. 4 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 14 works
  5. 5 G.S. Science, Arts And Commerce CollegeIndia 14 works
  6. 6 AstraZeneca (United Kingdom)United Kingdom 13 works
  7. 7 University of BolognaItaly 13 works
  8. 8 Tsinghua UniversityChina 13 works
  9. 9 ETH ZurichSwitzerland 13 works
  10. 10 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Chemistry and Chemical Engineering include Michaël Grätzel, George M. Whitesides and Ben Zhong Tang.

  1. 1 Michaël Grätzel Switzerland 458k citations
  2. 2 George M. Whitesides United States 267k citations
  3. 3 Ben Zhong Tang China 261k citations
  4. 4 John C. Morris United States 241k citations
  5. 5 Donald G. Truhlar United States 230k citations
  6. 6 Stefan Grimme Germany 224k citations
  7. 7 Younan Xia United States 207k citations
  8. 8 Anselm L. Strauss United States 205k citations
  9. 9 John Anthony Pople United States 202k 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 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering?

The most cited paper in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is "A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems" (Patrizia Ghisellini, Catia Cialani, Sérgio Ulgiati, 2015), with 6,451 citations. Next come "The Conservation of Orbital Symmetry" (4,086) and "A mechanistic study of the antibacterial effect of silver ions onEscherichia coli andStaphylococcus aureus" (4,004).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems Patrizia Ghisellini, Catia Cialani, Sérgio Ulgiati · Journal of Cleaner Production 16 Sep 2015 6,451
2 The Conservation of Orbital Symmetry Robert Burns Woodward, Roald Hoffmann · Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English Nov 1969 4,086
3 A mechanistic study of the antibacterial effect of silver ions onEscherichia coli andStaphylococcus aureus Qingling Feng, Jing Wu, Gaoqiang Chen et al. · Journal of Biomedical Materials Research 2000 4,004
4 AGREE─Analytical GREEnness Metric Approach and Software Francisco Pena‐Pereira, W. Wojnowski, Marek Tobiszewski · Analytical Chemistry Open access 15 Jun 2020 3,989
5 Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy Nancy Bocken, Ingrid de Pauw, Conny A. Bakker et al. · Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering Open access 26 Apr 2016 3,901
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Chemistry and Chemical Engineering research done?

The largest centres of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Moscow (Russia) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Basel.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 101 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 45 works
  3. 3 MoscowRussia 44 works
  4. 4 ParisFrance 40 works
  5. 5 São PauloBrazil 37 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 36 works
  7. 7 MumbaiIndia 34 works
  8. 8 NanjingChina 34 works
  9. 9 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 33 works
  10. 10 Mexico CityMexico 28 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BaselCH · 24.0 works8.3×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering than the world average.

See Chemistry and Chemical Engineering on the map

Where is the best place to study Chemistry and Chemical Engineering?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Bologna, Tsinghua University and ETH Zurich 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 20.53%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of BolognaTechnical University…Tsinghua UniversityETH Zurich
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
1University of BolognaItaly 87.133.8%3.8×13 +93.9%
2Tsinghua UniversityChina 72.123.5%1.3×13 +98.4%
3ETH ZurichSwitzerland 69.513.3%4.4×13 +30.0%
4Technical University of DenmarkDenmark 65.431.6%5.2×11 -39.7%
5Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom 62.813.0%2.7×11 +63.2%
6University of YorkUnited Kingdom 61.313.4%7.6×10 -3.9%
7Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 61.015.8%3.6×10 +52.1%
8Qingdao University of Science and TechnologyChina 59.620.9%6.8×10 +250.5%
9Universidade do PortoPortugal 58.814.9%4.3×12 +131.7%
10National University of SingaporeSingapore 56.525.1%1.7×8 +80.7%

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 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, country by country

Is Chemistry and Chemical Engineering research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 29% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.

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 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.022% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Chemistry and Chemical Engineering0.022% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering 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%Chemistry and Chemical Engineering10.4% 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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