Bismuth

Bismuth (Bi) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years

Bismuth’s research intensity has climbed steadily over the last decade, reaching about 93% of its all-time peak, a level not seen since 1934.

Research intensity ran from about 62% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 93% in 2026 — a steady climb, and the all-time peak (1934) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, bismuth has a larger-than-average research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 7,331 in 2016 to about 17,967 in 2025 (2.45x). That matches the growth of the literature as a whole over the same years: the general tide of scientific output, not a surge specific to the element.

The research communities driving this attention are diverse, with bismuth playing a supporting but critical role in several distinct fields. The largest material community is Bismuth Oxyhalides and Vanadates for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation, where bismuth is a minor presence in a much larger community—about 10% of its papers involve bismuth. These papers focus on bismuth vanadate, tungstate, and oxyhalide photoanodes for the oxygen evolution reaction in solar water splitting, with distinctive work on bismuth vanadate and enhanced photoelectrochemical properties. This community holds about 20% of bismuth’s recent research and has remained steady. A key paper here is a 2025 study in Nature Communications on a scalable solar-driven photocatalytic system for separated H2 and O2 production from water, cited over 130 times.

Another significant area is Lead-Free Piezoelectric and Multiferroic Bismuth Compounds, where bismuth is one strand of a broader community—about 13% of its papers involve bismuth. Here, bismuth titanate and ferrite materials serve as lead-free piezoelectrics and multiferroics, distinct from the community's dominant barium titanate focus. This community accounts for about 13% of bismuth’s recent research and has remained steady. Notable work includes a 2021 Science paper on ultrahigh energy storage in superparaelectric relaxor ferroelectrics, cited over 800 times.

The third major community is Bismuth Telluride Thin Films for Thermoelectrics, where bismuth is one strand of a broader community—about 15% of its papers involve bismuth. These papers focus on bismuth telluride and antimony telluride thin films, specifically optimizing n-type performance and topological properties for thermoelectric devices. This community holds about 7% of bismuth’s recent research and has remained steady. A prominent 2024 Science paper on grid-plainification enabling medium-temperature PbSe thermoelectrics to cool better than Bi2Te3 was cited over 280 times.

Overall, the composition of bismuth research has remained relatively stable, with the "Other research communities" band rising to about 60% of the element's recent research, indicating a broadening of bismuth's applications beyond these three core areas.

For a deeper look at bismuth's current standing, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.