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Topic · Materials Chemistry

Nuclear Materials and Properties

Nuclear Materials and Properties is a research topic within Materials Chemistry. Science Explorer counts 55k 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 focuses on the development and properties of advanced materials for nuclear fuel, including accident tolerant fuels, fuel cladding, thermophysical properties, oxidation resistance, behavior under high temperature and irradiation, hydrogen embrittlement, and fission product release.

  • Accident Tolerant Fuels
  • Fuel Cladding
  • Thermophysical Properties
  • Oxidation Resistance
  • Actinide Oxides
  • High Temperature Behavior
  • Density Functional Theory
  • Irradiation Performance
  • Hydrogen Embrittlement
  • Fission Product Release
Research works
55k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.4k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+8%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
42% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Nuclear Materials and Properties

Which countries lead Nuclear Materials and Properties research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.9k and 1.4k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.9k works
  2. 2 United States 1.4k works
  3. 3 Russia 520 works
  4. 4 Japan 453 works
  5. 5 France 365 works
  6. 6 India 361 works
  7. 7 Germany 295 works
  8. 8 South Korea 264 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 236 works
  10. 10 Canada 126 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: 41.7%United States: 20.5%Russia: 7.5%Japan: 6.5%6 others listed: 23.7%42%largest
China2,897 · 41.7%United States1,427 · 20.5%Russia520 · 7.5%Japan453 · 6.5%6 others listed1,648 · 23.7%

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

Which institutions lead Nuclear Materials and Properties research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Nuclear Materials and Properties research, followed by Xi'an Jiaotong University and Idaho National Laboratory.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 293 works
  2. 2 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 179 works
  3. 3 Idaho National LaboratoryUnited States 179 works
  4. 4 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 155 works
  5. 5 Oak Ridge National LaboratoryUnited States 153 works
  6. 6 Department of Atomic EnergyIndia 119 works
  7. 7 Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies AlternativesFrance 116 works
  8. 8 China General Nuclear Power Corporation (China)China 111 works
  9. 9 Japan Atomic Energy AgencyJapan 106 works
  10. 10 Tsinghua UniversityChina 102 works

Who are the leading researchers in Nuclear Materials and Properties?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Nuclear Materials and Properties include M. Shoji, Wei Huang and Yi Ping Cui.

  1. 1 M. Shoji Japan 806k citations
  2. 2 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  3. 3 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  4. 4 Jens K. Nørskov Denmark 260k citations
  5. 5 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  6. 6 Jiaguo Yu China 207k citations
  7. 7 Mercouri G. Kanatzidis United States 196k citations
  8. 8 Paul M. Thompson United States 196k citations
  9. 9 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k 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 Nuclear Materials and Properties?

The most cited paper in Nuclear Materials and Properties is "Optimization of parameters for semiempirical methods I. Method" (James J. P. Stewart, 1989), with 7,647 citations. Next come "Thermal Barrier Coatings for Gas-Turbine Engine Applications" (4,894) and "ENDF/B-VII.1 Nuclear Data for Science and Technology: Cross Sections, Covariances, Fission Product Yields and Decay Data" (2,883).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Optimization of parameters for semiempirical methods I. Method James J. P. Stewart · Journal of Computational Chemistry Mar 1989 7,647
2 Thermal Barrier Coatings for Gas-Turbine Engine Applications Nitin P. Padture, Maurice Gell, Eric H. Jordan · Science 12 Apr 2002 4,894
3 ENDF/B-VII.1 Nuclear Data for Science and Technology: Cross Sections, Covariances, Fission Product Yields and Decay Data M. B. Chadwick et al. · Nuclear Data Sheets Dec 2011 2,883
4 Semiempirical, Quantum Mechanical Calculation of Hydrogen Embrittlement in Metals Murray S. Daw, Michael I. Baskes · Physical Review Letters 25 Apr 1983 2,705
5 Materials challenges in nuclear energy Steven John Zinkle, Gary S. Was · Acta Materialia 18 Jan 2013 2,657
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Nuclear Materials and Properties research done?

The largest centres of Nuclear Materials and Properties research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Xi'an (China), Moscow (Russia) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Deep River, Saint-Paul-lès-Durance and Idaho Falls.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 701 works
  2. 2 Xi'anChina 285 works
  3. 3 MoscowRussia 261 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 229 works
  5. 5 Idaho FallsUnited States 183 works
  6. 6 ChengduChina 156 works
  7. 7 Oak RidgeUnited States 153 works
  8. 8 ShenzhenChina 136 works
  9. 9 MumbaiIndia 135 works
  10. 10 HefeiChina 121 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Deep RiverCA · 24.4 works287×
  2. Saint-Paul-lès-DuranceFR · 28.1 works200×
  3. Idaho FallsUS · 183.1 works188×
  4. Tōkai MuraJP · 104.7 works159×
  5. KurchatovKZ · 21.7 works130×
  6. KālpākkamIN · 41.6 works128×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Nuclear Materials and Properties on the map

Where is the best place to study Nuclear Materials and Properties?

Among universities, judged by research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Tianjin University and Kunming University of Science and Technology 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%10%20%30%mean 20.41%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Tianjin UniversityKunming University o…University of Scienc…Xi'an Jiaotong Unive…
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
1Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 73.215.9%14.2×179 +34.8%
2Tianjin UniversityChina 67.128.2%2.6×23 +30.2%
3Kunming University of Science and TechnologyChina 65.025.1%5.5×22 +174.7%
4University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 64.617.4%12.3×69 +75.7%
5Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 64.127.8%4.0×33 +83.1%
6Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 63.116.3%4.6×95 +139.7%
7Chalmers University of TechnologySweden 60.116.7%9.8×18 +18.6%
8Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 58.723.6%2.4×29 +54.0%
9University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 58.213.6%7.5×64 +28.3%
10Beihang UniversityChina 58.119.5%3.9×31 +8.0%

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 Nuclear Materials and Properties, country by country

Is Nuclear Materials and Properties research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 8% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2023. The fastest-growing topics are Nuclear Materials and Properties.

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 Nuclear Materials and Properties as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.038% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Nuclear Materials and Properties0.032% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Nuclear Materials and Properties 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%Nuclear Materials and Properties10.1% 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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