Rutherfordium

Rutherfordium (Rf) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Rutherfordium’s research intensity has fallen to about 13% of its own all-time peak, a level reached after a steady decline from 2016 to 2026.

Research intensity ran from about 29% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 13% in 2026 — a steady decline, and the all-time peak (2009) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements held steady. Among the 118 elements, rutherfordium has one of the smaller research literatures of any element.

The number of papers involving the element fell from about 26 in 2016 to about 13 in 2025 (0.5x). That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research.

The dominant research community is Superheavy Nuclei, Heavy-Ion Collisions, and Nuclear Structure. Within this group, rutherfordium is a minor presence in a much larger community -- under 1% of its papers involve rutherfordium. However, for rutherfordium specifically, this community accounts for about 100% of its recent research, a share that has risen from about 81% in the earlier period. The work here often touches on electronic structure and element 104. A key anchor is a 2016 paper on the production of unknown neutron-rich isotopes in U 238 + U 238 collisions, cited about 57 times. More recently, a 2026 study validating vacuum chromatography with subsecond radioisotopes was cited once.

A second community, Lanthanide and Actinide Coordination Chemistry for Magnetic and Optical Applications, shows a steady share of about 0% of the element's recent research. Rutherfordium is a minor presence in this community as well, with under 1% of its papers involving the element.

The third material community is Uranium Extraction, Separation, and Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemistry. Here, rutherfordium is also a minor presence, with under 1% of the community's papers involving it. Its share of rutherfordium's research has declined to about 0% in the current period, down from about 9.5% previously. An anchor paper from 2019, inducing selectivity and chirality in group IV metal coordination, was cited about 18 times.

Overall, the composition of rutherfordium’s literature has consolidated heavily into the superheavy nuclei and nuclear structure community, which now holds the entirety of the element’s clustered research, while shares in coordination and fuel cycle chemistry have dropped to zero.

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