Scandium

Scandium (Sc) — 10-Year Trends

As of 2026-09-25 · the last 10 years

Research intensity is currently at about 97% of the element's all-time peak, a level reached within this ten-year window.

Research intensity ran from about 67% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 97% in 2026 — a steady climb, and the all-time peak (2024) falls inside this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, scandium has a mid-sized research literature.

The number of papers involving the element rose from about 1,180 in 2016 to about 3,216 in 2025 (2.73x). That is faster than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element gained ground in the wider body of research.

The research communities driving this growth are diverse, ranging from materials science to industrial chemistry. The most significant area of recent consolidation is Scandium-Aluminum Nitride for Acoustic Wave Resonators. This subcommunity focuses on doping aluminum nitride thin films with scandium to engineer high-frequency surface acoustic wave resonators, a development critical for modern communications hardware. While scandium is a minor presence in the broader wide-bandgap semiconductor field—appearing in only about 1% of those papers—it accounts for about 17% of scandium-specific research. This share has risen significantly, growing from about 9% in the early part of the window to its current level. A key anchor for this work is a 2025 paper on periodically poled aluminum scandium nitride bulk acoustic wave resonators for 6G communications, cited about 46 times.

Another major area is Scandium Recovery from Aluminum Industry Waste. This research centers on extracting and separating scandium from bauxite residue and acid leachates, often using sulfuric acid processes. Here, scandium is also a minor component of the larger rare earth extraction community, appearing in about 4% of those papers, but it represents about 14% of scandium-specific research. This share has remained steady over the window. A notable contribution is a 2023 study in Nature Chemistry on selective scandium ion capture through coordination templating in a covalent organic framework, cited over 120 times.

Finally, Scandium Catalysts for Olefin Coordination Polymerization involves scandium complexes and half-sandwich ligands used to catalyze the copolymerization of ethylene with alkenes. Scandium is a minor player in the broader lanthanide coordination chemistry community (about 2% of those papers), yet it holds about 6% of scandium-specific research. This share has been steady. A representative paper is a 2024 study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on scandium-catalyzed terpolymerization to create self-healing elastomers, cited about 55 times.

Overall, the composition of scandium research has shifted toward materials applications like acoustic wave resonators, while maintaining steady footing in resource recovery and catalysis. The remainder of the element's research, comprising about 64% of the literature, remains distributed across various other fields.

For a deeper look at the current state of scandium research, consult the Last 12 Months or Executive Brief reports.