Roentgenium

Roentgenium (Rg) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Research intensity stands at about 14% of the element's own all-time peak, a level reached after a decade of uneven growth from a low base, with the historical peak occurring in 2009, outside this window.

Research intensity ran from about 8% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 14% in 2026 — a net rise with setbacks along the way, and the all-time peak (2009) lies before this window. Among the 118 elements, roentgenium has one of the smaller research literatures of any element.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 5 in 2016 to about 8 in 2025 (1.6x). 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 even as its own count rose.

The dominant research community is Superheavy Nuclei, Heavy-Ion Collisions, and Nuclear Structure. This group focuses on element synthesis, dynamics superheavy, synthesis reactions, and sequential fission. Roentgenium is a minor presence in this much larger community, with under 1% of its papers involving roentgenium. However, this community accounts for 100% of roentgenium's recent research, a share that has risen from 84.6% in the previous period. The work is anchored by a 2020 paper on entrance channel dependent hot fusion reactions, cited about 58 times, and a 2023 study on colliding heavy nuclei, cited about 25 times.

Other communities, such as Machine-Learned Potentials and First-Principles Simulation of Condensed Matter and Laser-Controlled Atomic Systems for Precision Metrology and Quantum Control, show steady but negligible involvement, holding 0% of the element's recent research. Two smaller groups, Lanthanide and Actinide Coordination Chemistry for Magnetic and Optical Applications and an unnamed community, have seen their share decline to zero from 7.7% in the earlier period. The unnamed community includes a 2019 paper on roentgenium nanoparticles for gum cancer treatment, cited about 40 times, but this line of work has not sustained its presence in the recent window.

Overall, the literature is consolidating around superheavy nuclei and nuclear structure, while other areas have receded. The element's research remains a small but focused niche within the broader field of superheavy element synthesis.

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