Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Materials Chemistry

Thermal properties of materials

Thermal properties of materials is a research topic within Materials Chemistry. Science Explorer counts 25k 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 nanoscale thermal transport properties of graphene, carbon nanotubes, and other nanostructured carbon materials. It explores topics such as thermal conductivity, phonon transport, and heat conduction in polymer composites and nanocomposites, with applications in thermal management and the development of advanced thermal interface materials.

  • Graphene
  • Thermal Conductivity
  • Nanocomposites
  • Boron Nitride
  • Phonon Transport
  • Polymer Composites
  • Thermal Management
  • Nanostructures
  • Heat Conduction
  • Thermal Interface Materials
Research works
25k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+16%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
55% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Thermal properties of materials

Which countries lead Thermal properties of materials research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.9k and 749 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.9k works
  2. 2 United States 749 works
  3. 3 India 406 works
  4. 4 Japan 305 works
  5. 5 South Korea 243 works
  6. 6 France 206 works
  7. 7 Germany 153 works
  8. 8 Russia 134 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 112 works
  10. 10 Italy 92 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: 55.0%United States: 14.0%India: 7.6%Japan: 5.7%6 others listed: 17.6%55%largest
China2,940 · 55.0%United States749 · 14.0%India406 · 7.6%Japan305 · 5.7%6 others listed940 · 17.6%

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

Which institutions lead Thermal properties of materials research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Thermal properties of materials research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Tsinghua University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 229 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 113 works
  3. 3 Tsinghua UniversityChina 67 works
  4. 4 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 66 works
  5. 5 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 64 works
  6. 6 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 52 works
  7. 7 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 50 works
  8. 8 Huazhong University of Science and TechnologyChina 48 works
  9. 9 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 48 works
  10. 10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 47 works

Who are the leading researchers in Thermal properties of materials?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Thermal properties of materials include Zhong Lin Wang, Georg Kresse and Kostya S. Novoselov.

  1. 1 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  2. 2 Georg Kresse Austria 431k citations
  3. 3 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  4. 4 Andre K. Geim United Kingdom 315k citations
  5. 5 Yury G. Gogotsi United States 313k citations
  6. 6 Wei Huang China 267k citations
  7. 7 Gordon Brent Mills United States 265k citations
  8. 8 Yi Ping Cui United States 261k citations
  9. 9 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  10. 10 Kenji Watanabe Japan 237k 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 Thermal properties of materials?

The most cited paper in Thermal properties of materials is "Superior Thermal Conductivity of Single-Layer Graphene" (Alexander A. Balandin, Suchismita Ghosh, Wenzhong Bao et al., 2008), with 13,851 citations. Next come "First principles phonon calculations in materials science" (11,731) and "Complex thermoelectric materials" (11,452).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Superior Thermal Conductivity of Single-Layer Graphene Alexander A. Balandin, Suchismita Ghosh, Wenzhong Bao et al. · Nano Letters 20 Feb 2008 13,851
2 First principles phonon calculations in materials science Atsushi Togo, Isao Tanaka · Scripta Materialia Open access 29 Jul 2015 11,731
3 Complex thermoelectric materials Gerald Jeffrey Snyder, Eric S. Toberer · Nature Materials 25 Jan 2008 11,452
4 Thermal properties of graphene and nanostructured carbon materials Alexander A. Balandin · Nature Materials Open access 22 Jul 2011 6,243
5 BoltzTraP. A code for calculating band-structure dependent quantities Georg K. H. Madsen, David Joseph Singh · Computer Physics Communications Open access 5 May 2006 6,213
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Thermal properties of materials research done?

The largest centres of Thermal properties of materials research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Xi'an (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Villeurbanne, Tsukuba and Xiangtan.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 568 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 232 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 177 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 165 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 146 works
  6. 6 SeoulSouth Korea 110 works
  7. 7 GuangzhouChina 101 works
  8. 8 HarbinChina 101 works
  9. 9 ChengduChina 101 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 99 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VilleurbanneFR · 29.8 works9.2×
  2. TsukubaJP · 54.4 works7.8×
  3. XiangtanCN · 20.2 works6.8×
  4. MianyangCN · 21.8 works6.2×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Thermal properties of materials than the world average.

See Thermal properties of materials on the map

Where is the best place to study Thermal properties of materials?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Southern University of Science and Technology and Donghua 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%10%20%30%mean 19.27%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwestern Polytec…Tianjin UniversitySouthern University …Donghua 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.

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 78.928.1%6.5×41 +13.1%
2Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina 77.824.0%8.4×25 +51.9%
3Donghua UniversityChina 71.321.1%11.8×24 +54.9%
4Tianjin UniversityChina 71.025.2%3.8×26 +52.0%
5Sichuan UniversityChina 67.615.6%3.7×47 +23.5%
6University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 67.114.6%5.2×47 +31.7%
7National University of SingaporeSingapore 66.822.6%2.8×18 +24.6%
8Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 66.513.6%6.5×64 +42.7%
9Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 65.814.8%3.1×50 +24.7%
10University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 64.913.1%11.0×48 +100.9%

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 Thermal properties of materials, country by country

Is Thermal properties of materials research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 16% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Thermal properties of materials.

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 Thermal properties of materials as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.024% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Thermal properties of materials0.026% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Thermal properties of materials 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%Thermal properties of materials9.8% 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.

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about Thermal properties of materials. Posts are plain text and can be reported.