Polycarboxylate Superplasticizer Patents: Leaders & White Space 2026
- 48.4% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 44 of the 91 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 63.7% — this is a field with a narrow core and a long tail of single-filing entrants.
- Filing has cooled sharply since the 2020 peak. Published filings ran from 15 in 2020 to a documented -86% drop between 2021 (7) and 2024 (1), the last year with complete publication data.
- China dominates the receiving offices. 60 of the tracked filings route through China, versus single digits for Malaysia, the US, South Africa, Europe and Japan combined.
Filing growth compares 2021 (7 records) with 2024 (1) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 91 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PCE) design sits at the intersection of cement chemistry and addition polymer synthesis: side-chain length and grafting density set how a molecule adsorbs onto cement particles, and that adsorption behaviour governs slump retention, clay tolerance and dosage efficiency on the job site. This dataset tracks 91 published records filed or published between 2015 and mid-2026 that claim polycarboxylate superplasticizer or concrete water reducer chemistry with an explicit tie to side-chain density, cement adsorption, slump retention, clay tolerance, cement compatibility or dosage efficiency.
The scope is deliberately narrow: it excludes generic water-reducer chemistry that does not address one of those six performance mechanisms, so the records here are weighted toward formulation and process claims rather than broad polymer composition.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 91 records: publication activity by year, and the IPC subclasses those records carry. Because a single record can carry more than one IPC class, the class shares below sum to more than 100% of the record total.
Filing trend: a 2020 peak, then a documented pullback
Published filings rose to a peak of 15 in 2020, then fell — the evidence shows 2021 at 7 and 2024 at 1, an 86% drop over that span. 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the apparent drop-off in the newest years should not be read as the field slowing further; it is a data-completeness artefact on top of a real, already-documented decline through 2024.
Technology composition: cement chemistry dominates, addition polymers close behind
C04B (ceramics, cement and refractories) appears on 86.8% of the 91 records, and C08F (addition polymers) on 62.6% — together they confirm this is fundamentally a cement-adsorption problem solved with vinyl-type polymer chemistry. The remaining classes are thin: C07F and C08G organo-metallic and condensation chemistry sit at 4.4% each, and structural, testing, catalysis and grinding classes each account for 2.2% or less of records.
Shares are the percentage of the 91 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Polycarboxylate Superplasticizer Design with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about polycarboxylate superplasticizer design and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in this landscape
Grafting lignosulfonate with carbonyl aliphatics for a concrete water reducer
The filing describes a concrete water reducer produced by graft copolymerization of lignosulfonate onto a carbonyl-group aliphatic water reducer, with a specified weight ratio of carbonyl aliphatics to lignosulfonate and a defined reaction temperature and time window for the grafting step.Filed by Jiang Su TMS Concrete Addition Agent Co.; illustrative of the lignosulfonate-modification route within this landscape rather than the leading claim by citation.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CN104262550A | 一种降粘型聚羧酸系减水剂的制备方法 | 52 |
| 2 | JP2011136844A | Slump-retaining admixture for improving clay activity in concrete | 47 |
| 3 | CN105906753A | 一种制备聚羧酸系减水剂的方法 | 19 |
| 4 | EP2937321A1 | Slump retaining polycarboxylic acid superplasticizer | 17 |
| 5 | CN105384380A | 一种栲胶/聚羧酸混凝土减水剂及其制备方法 | 16 |
| 6 | CN109535341A | 疏水改性降粘型聚羧酸减水剂及其制备方法 | 15 |
| 7 | CN111925489A | 一种高减水保坍型聚羧酸减水剂及其制备方法和应用 | 13 |
| 8 | CN109516715A | 一种适用于清水混凝土的聚羧酸减水剂工作液制备方法 | 12 |
| 9 | CN107987231A | 一种抗泥型聚羧酸减水剂及其制备方法 | 12 |
| 10 | US20110124847A1 | Method for preparing concrete water reducer by grafting of lignosulfonate with carbonyl aliphatics | 12 |
Citation counts reflect the searched corpus and favour older records; treat them as a signal of influence rather than of current commercial relevance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Read together, the concentration, trend and citation data point to a field where the core adsorption chemistry is well claimed but several adjacent mechanisms remain thinly covered.
The core is narrow, not fragmented
Nearly half of all records in scope belong to five assignees, and the top 10 account for 63.7%. New entrants filing on core side-chain-density or basic adsorption mechanisms are filing into occupied space; differentiation has to come from a specific performance claim, not the base chemistry.
Growth has already cooled, not just gone quiet recently
The drop from 7 published filings in 2021 to 1 in 2024 is a documented decline over a period with complete publication data — it predates the more recent apparent slowdown that is really a publication-lag effect. Treat 2025-2026 figures as provisional.
Filing strategy is regionally concentrated
China accounts for the large majority of receiving-office activity, with Malaysia, the United States, South Africa, Europe and Japan each in single digits. A freedom-to-operate check weighted toward Chinese filings will catch most of the documented prior art.
The most-cited work skews older and China-origin
The top-cited record concerns viscosity-reduction in polycarboxylate water reducers; high citation counts here reflect an older, heavily-searched corpus rather than current commercial dominance.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to polycarboxylate superplasticizer design, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gaps sit
The ranked leaders cluster around a small group of Chinese materials companies, several linked through repeated co-assignee filings, alongside university co-filers and a long tail of single-record entrants.
A clear single leader, then a fast drop-off
The leading assignee holds 16 of the 91 records, well ahead of fifth place at 5 and tenth place at 2 — the ranking flattens quickly outside the top few names.
Corporate affiliates file jointly, not competitively
The strongest co-assignee pairs link related entities under what reads as a shared corporate group, each sharing 5 records; a separate university-industry pair shares 2. This points to internal group filing strategy rather than open collaboration across the field.
Even the leaders show no recent-year output
Every one of the six most-active assignees tracked for recent momentum shows zero filings in the latest year — consistent with the broader publication-lag effect rather than a signal that these companies have stopped filing.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| KZJ New Materials Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Sobute New Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Anhui Funan Lvyuan Chemical Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Jiangsu Aolaite New Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Bote Building Materials (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Nanjing Bote New Materials Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Chongqing Xincai Concrete Group Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Guizhou Normal College | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a concentrated core and a thin periphery; the next step is deciding whether to compete on the core mechanism or file into one of the under-claimed branches.
Map claim scope against the leader's 16 records
Before drafting new side-chain-density or adsorption claims, check how narrowly the leading assignee's filings are drawn — dense filing does not mean broad claims, and gaps often sit inside a crowded-looking portfolio.
Explore claim scope in EurekaTest freedom-to-operate against the China-heavy filing base
With 60 of 91 records routed through China, a freedom-to-operate screen should weight Chinese-language filings heavily rather than relying on English-language search alone.
Run an FTO screen in EurekaWatch for the 2025-2026 publication catch-up
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the apparent drop after 2024 will partly reverse as later records publish; re-check the trend in six to twelve months before concluding the field has gone quiet.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The ranking covers 58 companies across 91 records, and it is concentrated at the top: the leading assignee alone holds 16 records, and the top 5 combined account for 44 records, or 48.4% of everything in scope. Past the top 10 (63.7% combined), the ranking flattens into a long tail of assignees with only one or two records each. Most of the concentrated activity comes from Chinese materials and construction-chemical companies, several of which co-file with related group entities.
Filing activity peaked at 15 published records in 2020 and has declined since, with a documented drop from 7 filings in 2021 to 1 in 2024 — an 86% fall over that span, using 2024 as the last year with complete publication data. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look even lower, but that is expected: publication typically lags filing by about 18 months, so recent years are always undercounted at the time of any snapshot. The real signal is the 2021-2024 decline, not the apparent cliff after it.
This filing claims a concrete water reducer made by grafting lignosulfonate onto a carbonyl-group aliphatic water reducer, with a specified weight ratio of carbonyl aliphatics to lignosulfonate and a defined reaction temperature and time window for the graft copolymerization step. It is narrow to that specific grafting chemistry and stoichiometry rather than to polycarboxylate superplasticizers generally, so it does not block PCE formulations built on different backbone chemistry or different lignosulfonate ratios. Anyone working with lignosulfonate-modified water reducers should check the exact ratio and temperature ranges claimed before assuming freedom to operate.
The IPC composition shows heavy concentration in C04B (cement, 86.8% of records) and C08F (addition polymers, 62.6%), while organo-metallic backbone chemistry (C07F), condensation-polymer side chains (C08G), structural-component integration (E04C) and dosage-testing methods (G01N) each sit at 4.4% or below. Clay-tolerance-specific claims and in-situ dosage-efficiency testing methods are similarly thin relative to the core adsorption and slump-retention art. These lower-density branches are worth checking for open claim scope before assuming the field is fully occupied.
China dominates, accounting for 60 of the 91 records in the receiving-office breakdown. Malaysia (7), the United States (6) and South Africa (6) form a second tier, with Europe (3) and Japan (2) trailing. A clearance search focused only on English-language, Western-office filings would miss the large majority of the documented prior art in this landscape.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.