Mapping graphene science and development: Focused research with multiple application areas

Abstract

EDITOR'S SUMMARYFocusing on graphene, a material made from carbon atoms, researchers constructed a map illustrating the material in the context of scientific developments and patent activity over time. Two basemaps reflecting general science and patent activity were created, in addition to two overlay maps reflecting scientific publication and patenting activities specific to graphene. The science and patent overlay maps together display how the material was discovered and used between 2000 and 2013. The maps reveal 222 Web of Science categories and 466 International Patent Classification categories and identify 18 macro‐disciplines and 35 macro‐patent categories. Graphene research is shown to focus on material sciences and closely related fields such as engineering and physical chemistry, while graphene inventions cover technologies from catalysis and semiconductors to the pharmaceutical arena. The node size, density of relationships and colors of the map give additional information on research and development efforts and relationships among subset topics. The process employed text mining, visualization and graphics software tools in addition to a mapping kit available from the authors.