Science Explorer Interactive view Map

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. 18.5% 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%
4.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
18.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+34%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Thermal properties of materials research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.4k and 638 works in 2022–2025).

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 2.4k works
  2. 2 United States 638 works
  3. 3 India 318 works
  4. 4 Japan 268 works
  5. 5 South Korea 209 works
  6. 6 France 180 works
  7. 7 Germany 131 works
  8. 8 Russia 119 works
  9. 9 United Kingdom 93 works
  10. 10 Italy 79 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: 54.3%United States: 14.3%India: 7.1%Japan: 6.0%6 others listed: 18.2%54%largest
China2,416 · 54.3%United States638 · 14.3%India318 · 7.1%Japan268 · 6.0%6 others listed810 · 18.2%

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

Which institutions lead Thermal properties of materials research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Thermal properties of materials research, followed by Harbin Institute of Technology and Tsinghua University.

Who are the leading researchers in Thermal properties of materials?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Thermal properties of materials include Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi and David J. Singh.

  1. 1 Kenji Watanabe Japan 6.4k citations
  2. 2 Takashi Taniguchi Japan 6.2k citations
  3. 3 David J. Singh United States 5.1k citations
  4. 4 Mercouri G. Kanatzidis United States 4.3k citations
  5. 5 A. C. Gossard United States 4.2k citations
  6. 6 M. S. Dresselhaus United States 4.2k citations
  7. 7 M. Cardona Germany 4.1k citations

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

Where is Thermal properties of materials research done?

The largest centres of Thermal properties of materials research in 2022–2025 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 and Tsukuba.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 485 works
  2. 2 Shanghai China 197 works
  3. 3 Xi'an China 147 works
  4. 4 Wuhan China 137 works
  5. 5 Nanjing China 123 works
  6. 6 Seoul South Korea 94 works
  7. 7 Guangzhou China 86 works
  8. 8 Tokyo Japan 86 works
  9. 9 Chengdu China 85 works
  10. 10 Harbin China 84 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VilleurbanneFR · 23.8 works8.6×
  2. TsukubaJP · 49.7 works8.5×
← less than its size predictsmore →

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, Donghua University, Xi'an Jiaotong University and Southern University of Science and Technology 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 26.24%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Donghua University: 18, 27.0%Xi'an Jiaotong University: 50, 24.0%Southern University of Science and Technology: 22, 32.2%Harbin Institute of Technology: 57, 20.4%University of Science and Technology Beijing: 44, 20.8%Shenzhen University: 21, 27.4%Northwestern Polytechnical University: 33, 34.9%Beijing University of Chemical Technology: 14, 30.8%Sichuan University: 41, 22.3%University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: 39, 22.6%Southern University …Donghua UniversityXi'an Jiaotong Unive…Harbin Institute of …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 Donghua UniversityChina 67.727.0%9.4×18 +227.9%
2 Xi'an Jiaotong UniversityChina 64.524.0%6.0×50 +203.6%
3 Southern University of Science and TechnologyChina 62.432.2%7.7×22
4 Harbin Institute of TechnologyChina 61.320.4%6.6×57 +147.0%
5 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 60.720.8%10.7×44 +4.4%
6 Shenzhen UniversityChina 59.327.4%5.3×21 +286.3%
7 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 58.934.9%5.5×33 +50.4%
8 Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyChina 58.330.8%6.1×14 +222.3%
9 Sichuan UniversityChina 56.822.3%4.6×41 +476.2%
10 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 53.222.6%4.5×39 +132.2%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Thermal properties of materials research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 34% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Thermal properties of materials.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

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.