Trends in the Development of Metallic and Bimetallic Nanoparticles: A Patents Landscape Analysis

Abstract

The upward development of nanotechnology in the last 30 years for applications in medicine, agriculture, and energy, among others, has substantially impacted the development of scientific articles and patents. This has stimulated the knowledge economy by improving university-industry integration, which benefits all. The increasing development of patents leads us to analyze, within a period of 10 years, the emerging technologies in developing metallic and bimetallic nanoparticles. Additionally, the incidence that the production of patents has had on developing this technology in leading countries such as the United States, China, Australia, and India is shown. This article shows a scientometric analysis of the development of patents the metallic and bimetallic nanoparticles. Aspects such as patents by country, types of patents, inventors, applicants, and most developed technologies were evaluated. Scopus databases, Espacenet software, and different computer tools were used for the analysis. The results showed the United States and China with 53.3% of patent production with respect to the total; the United States mainly develops patents, and the principal applicants are Universities (63%) and industry (37%).