Innovations in Inorganic Glasses: Quantitative Insights and Policies for Sustainable Manufacturing

ABSTRACT

The continuously evolving field of glass science and technology represents a pivotal domain of relevance to societal, strategic, energy, and healthcare‐related applications. Such a wide range of applications have been possible as the researchers have been able to innovate the glass composition and manufacturing to control the multifunctionality. The growth of research output in terms of publications and inventions (patents) across oxide and non‐oxide glasses was critically analyzed, while adopting comprehensive scientometric review during 2006–2025. The scientometric analysis reveals that global research in the field of glass science and technology advances steadily, with compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) of 2.87% and 2.93% for publication and patent outputs, respectively. Keyword co‐occurrence network analysis and topic trend analysis reveal strong associations among the terms such as “temperature”, “relaxation”, “viscosity”, and “kinetics” indicating the importance of fundamental aspects of glass science. Interestingly, a highly concentrated glass research landscape emerges in terms of the country‐wise publication output as nearly 50% of total publications are originated from the top three leading countries (China, India, and USA). The impact of the global collaboration network is also established in this study. Thematic evolution in the field of glasses reveals a clear evolution from basic fundamental studies (2006–2010) to application‐driven (2010–2020) and digitally integrated research (2021–2025). Furthermore, this study indicates the continuous impact of glass research on photonic and optoelectronic applications, while emerging fields such as biomedical, sensing, energy conversion, and computational designs are gaining momentum in recent times. This article proposes key recommendations such as reduction in carbon footprint by adopting innovative manufacturing solutions and formulation of long‐term framework for the industrial transition and development of environment‐friendly glass composition formulation. Moreover, this article also addresses the importance related to implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in glass processing as well as new glass formulation for high‐value, low‐volume, and niche applications. Furthermore, the key issues related to circular economy practices, strengthening of raw material supply chains, and translational research ecosystem are also discussed in this article.