Electric batteries

Rechargeable batteries: lithium-ion and the chemistries competing to replace it.

China leads electric batteries research, with 68.0% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; the United States is second with 7.6%.

FirstChina68.0%

SecondUnited States7.6%

8.9×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Highlight a country

Standings

1CNChina68.0%2USUnited States7.6%3KRSouth Korea3.4%4–5GBUnited Kingdom2.2%4–5DEGermany2.2%6AUAustralia1.9%7CACanada1.7%8HKHong Kong1.5%9INIndia1.3%10SGSingapore0.8%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 7,469 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

China

Everyone else, on a larger scale

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-area	Papers	First	Second	Third
Battery management, modelling, thermal and safety	1,288	CNChina59.5%	USUnited States5.8%	GBUnited Kingdom4.5%
Zinc, magnesium and other aqueous or multivalent batteries	1,230	CNChina78.0%	USUnited States3.1%	HKHong Kong2.8%
Sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries	941	CNChina79.8%	USUnited States4.0%	AUAustralia2.8%
Solid-state batteries and solid electrolytes	940	CNChina59.7%	USUnited States13.2%	KRSouth Korea6.3%
Lithium-ion anodes (graphite, silicon)	567	CNChina76.9%	USUnited States5.3%	KRSouth Korea3.7%
Lithium-sulfur batteries	538	CNChina77.5%	USUnited States5.1%	KRSouth Korea3.1%
Liquid electrolytes and interphases	533	CNChina67.0%	USUnited States12.6%	KRSouth Korea4.5%
Lithium-ion cathode materials	418	CNChina63.0%	USUnited States11.8%	KRSouth Korea6.2%
Battery recycling and materials recovery	391	CNChina54.2%	USUnited States9.7%	GBUnited Kingdom3.3%
Lithium metal anodes	340	CNChina67.3%	USUnited States14.3%	KRSouth Korea5.2%
Redox flow batteries	92	CNChina52.9%	USUnited States12.0%	HKHong Kong7.8%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change

CNChina 64.0%72.0%+8.0 pts

USUnited States 9.6%5.7%−3.9 pts

KRSouth Korea 3.5%3.3%−0.3 pts

GBUnited Kingdom 3.1%1.3%−1.8 pts

DEGermany 2.7%1.6%−1.1 pts

AUAustralia 2.2%1.6%−0.6 pts

CACanada 1.9%1.5%−0.5 pts

HKHong Kong 1.4%1.6%+0.2 pts

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 3,692 papers in 2021–2023, 3,777 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (16,800), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

CNChina67.1%of 2026 papers have an author here
KRSouth Korea7.3%of 2026 papers have an author here
USUnited States6.5%of 2026 papers have an author here
INIndia4.4%of 2026 papers have an author here
DEGermany3.9%of 2026 papers have an author here

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess

CNChina 77.4%65.7%+11.7

USUnited States 13.8%9.3%+4.5

KRSouth Korea 13.7%7.0%+6.7

GBUnited Kingdom 8.9%3.3%+5.6

DEGermany 13.4%4.8%+8.6

Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

1CNCentral South University2.5%
2CNTsinghua University2.5%
3CNBeijing Institute of Technology2.5%
4CNChinese Academy of SciencesGovernment lab1.8%
5CNUniversity of Science and Technology of China1.2%
6CNHarbin Institute of Technology1.2%
7CNNankai University1.1%
8CNXi'an Jiaotong University1.1%
9CNXiamen University1.0%
10CNZhejiang University1.0%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

Sector	All	CN	US	KR
Universities	83.4%	87.2%	77.1%	85.5%
Research facilities	11.8%	8.4%	19.2%	6.8%
Government labs	2.7%	3.1%	1.0%	0.1%
Companies	1.3%	1.0%	1.9%	5.3%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

32.1% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

CNUSChina with United States431
AUCNAustralia with China336
CNHKChina with Hong Kong270
CNGBChina with United Kingdom223
CNSGChina with Singapore173

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

Challenges in speeding up solid-state battery development
Nature Energy, 2023DE
1,651citations
Post-lithium-ion battery cell production and its compatibility with lithium-ion cell production infrastructure
Nature Energy, 2021DE
1,335citations
High‐Energy Lithium‐Ion Batteries: Recent Progress and a Promising Future in Applications
Energy & environment materials, 2022CN
1,201citations
Lithium ion battery degradation: what you need to know
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2021GBIN
1,187citations
Fluorinated interphase enables reversible aqueous zinc battery chemistries
Nature Nanotechnology, 2021US
1,187citations

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

"lithium-ion battery" OR "lithium metal battery" OR "lithium-sulfur battery" OR "sodium-ion battery" OR "solid-state battery" OR "zinc-ion battery" OR "redox flow battery" OR "solid electrolyte"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: Advancements in Battery Materials; Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies; Advanced Battery Technologies Research; Advanced battery technologies research; Extraction and Separation Processes. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025: 74,665
In the top 10%: 7,469
In the top 1%: 748
Countries with credit: 89
Credit with no known country: 2.3%

Every one of the 8,000 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 14 were left out as not about electric batteries

The most cited of those left out:

A review of technologies for direct lithium extraction from low Li+ concentration aqueous solutions154 citations
Graphite Flows in the U.S.: Insights into a Key Ingredient of Energy Transition121 citations
A comprehensive review of lithium extraction: From historical perspectives to emerging technologies, storage, and environmental considerations111 citations
Synthesis and optimisation mechanism of functionalised adsorption materials for lithium-ion extraction from salt water: A review77 citations
Research progress of technology of lithium extraction66 citations
Advancing gel polymer electrolytes for next-generation high-performance solid-state supercapacitors: A comprehensive review63 citations
Critical Review of Lithium Recovery Methods: Advancements, Challenges, and Future Directions55 citations
Metal extraction using deep eutectic solvents for metal recovery and environmental remediation – A review42 citations
Sustainable lithium extraction from liquid ores using membrane-based technologies: a review32 citations
Inorganic solid-state electrolyte membranes for lithium extraction30 citations
Review of technologies to extract lithium from hard rock lithium minerals29 citations
Direct extraction of lithium from a salt-lake brine of low-chloride and high‑calcium using a TBP-FeCl3 solvent extraction system and stripping with HCl27 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

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