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Review
. 2020 Apr 10;12(4):869.
doi: 10.3390/polym12040869.

A Global View on Block Copolymers

Massimo Lazzari  1 , Mercedes Torneiro  2
Affiliations
Review

A Global View on Block Copolymers

Massimo Lazzari et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

In this systematic review, a total of 45,143 publications on block copolymers, issued between 1952 and 2019, are analyzed in terms of number, source, language, institution, country, keywords, and block copolymer type, to find out their evolution and predict research trends. The number of publications devoted to block copolymers has been growing for over six decades, maintaining a consistent level throughout the last few years. In their majority, documents came out of the United States, although more recently, Chinese institutions are those displaying the largest production. Keywords analysis indicated that one-third of the publications concerned synthesis, around 20% explored self-assembly and morphological aspects, and another 20% referred to block copolymer applications in solution. In particular, 2019 confirmed the expansion of studies related to drug delivery, and in minor extent, to a deeper view of self-assembling. Styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer was the most popular in studies covering both basic and industrially oriented aspects. Other highly investigated copolymers are PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO (Pluronic©) and amphiphilic block copolymers based on polycaprolactone or poly(lactic acid), which owed their success to their potential as delivery vehicles. Future trending topics will concern nanomedicine challenges and technology-related applications, with a special attention toward the orientation and ordering of mesophase-separated morphologies.

Keywords: PS-b-PMMA; drug delivery; nanomaterials; poly(ethylene oxide); self-assembly.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of publications between 1950 and 2019.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of document types for block copolymers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top 15 institutions by number of scientific publications on block copolymers. The most cited publication of each institution is reported as reference by the decreasing order of number of publications [21,22,23,24,25], [17], [26,27,28,29,30,31], [15], [32], [33].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Top 10 countries by number of scientific publications on block copolymers.
Figure 5
Figure 5
World map with main countries and their number of publications on block copolymers. The deep red color indicates the countries with the biggest number of publications, the yellow indicates smaller numbers of publications, and the gray indicates the countries without any publications.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Top 10 countries in normalized scientific production, as number of publications per million of inhabitants.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Evolution of the communities of countries and their associations in publications on block copolymers, in the period 1952–1984, 1998–1999, and during the years 2009 and 2019. Only countries with at least 10 documents and 5 overall links are shown, except for the period 1952–1984 where the threshold is just one link.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Trend for the main journals (publications between 1990 and 2019).
Figure 9
Figure 9
Top 15 keywords in scientific research on block copolymers. ‘Synthesis’ refers to the sum of the keywords ‘copolymerization’, ‘polymerization’, ‘synthesis’, and ‘synthesis (chemical)’; ‘polyethylene oxides’ also refers to the sister keyword ‘polyethylene glycols’; ‘micelles’ also refers to the keyword ‘micelle’; ‘polystyrene’ also refers to ‘polystyrenes’; ‘self-assembly’ also refers to ‘self assembly’; ‘drug delivery’ includes the keywords ‘drug delivery system’, ‘drug delivery systems’, ‘controlled drug delivery’, ‘drug carrier’, and ‘drug carriers’; ‘transmission electron microscopy’ also refers to ‘high-resolution transmission electron microscopy’.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Word clouds of author keywords and their associations in publications on block copolymers, in 1952–1984, 1998–1999, 2009, and 2019. Every word cloud considers the top 20 keywords of the period, with sizes directly proportional to the number of publications.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Number of publications related to representative block copolymers from 2000 to 2019.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Trend for the number of publications referring to representative block copolymers from 2000 to 2019.
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