Carbon

Carbon (C) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Carbon’s research intensity stands at about 95% of its own all-time peak, a level reached within this window in 2024.

Research intensity ran from about 93% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 95% in 2026 — flat overall, with some movement in between, and the all-time peak (2024) falls inside this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, carbon has one of the largest research literatures of any element.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 318,913 in 2016 to about 769,332 in 2025 (2.41x). 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 literature is composed of several distinct research communities, each representing a different facet of carbon science. The largest named group is Carbon Fiber and Silicon Carbide Composite Reinforcement, which focuses on carbon fiber-reinforced polymers, silicon carbide ceramics, and nanomaterials for structural mechanical reinforcement. Here, carbon is one strand of a broader community, with about 29% of its papers involving carbon. This community holds about 10.5% of carbon’s recent research, a share that has remained steady. A key paper in this area is "Past, present and future prospective of global carbon fibre composite developments and applications" (2022), cited over 970 times.

Another significant community is Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization Engineering, centered on direct air capture, post-combustion removal, and porous carbon sorbents for sequestering and utilizing carbon dioxide. Carbon is again one strand of a broader community, with about 21% of its papers involving the element. This community accounts for about 9.1% of carbon’s recent research, also steady. The IPCC special report on carbon dioxide capture and storage (2021), cited over 4,900 times, anchors this field.

The third major community is Carbon Electrode Modification and Nanomaterial Synthesis, which involves modifying glassy carbon electrodes and synthesizing carbon nanotubes and graphene for electrochemical applications. Carbon is one strand of a broader community, with about 19% of its papers involving carbon. This group represents about 7.8% of carbon’s recent research, holding steady. "Raman spectroscopy of carbon materials and their composites: Graphene, nanotubes and fibres" (2023), cited over 1,000 times, is a representative work here.

Overall, the composition of carbon research has remained stable, with these three communities maintaining their relative shares. The remaining 72.6% of research is distributed among other, smaller communities. The most cited paper in the window, "Combining theory and experiment in electrocatalysis: Insights into materials design" (2017), cited over 12,000 times, belongs to the Electrochemical community and underscores the breadth of carbon's role in energy applications.

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