The development history and evolutionary trends of percarbonate: Bibliometric analysis from 2000 to 2022

Abstract

Percarbonate has gradually emerged in the treatment of water pollution, and it is highly efficient, non-toxic, economical, and environmentally friendly. In this paper, 258 articles related to percarbonate from 2000 to 2022 were retrieved from the Web of Science. The contributing countries, institutions, authors, and journals were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed by using CiteSpace software for the first time. The research hotspots and development trends in the field of percarbonate were proposed. The results showed that the research history of percarbonate can be divided into the initial stage (2000–2014) and rapid development stage (2015–2022). The countries which published the most papers are P. R. China, USA, and India. P. R. China is at the core of the international cooperation network. In particular, East China University of Science and Technology is leading in publication numbers and academic cooperation. The study of percarbonate was multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, mainly concentrated in the disciplines of Environmental Sciences, Engineering Environmental, and Engineering Chemical. Research papers on percarbonate have been published in influential journals such as Chemical Engineering Journal, Chemosphere, and Science of the Total Environment. Keyword analysis indicated that percarbonate was initially used as an industrial oxygen source or organic synthesis material, and recently it was used for organic pollution remediation in groundwater and soil. The research hotspots in the field of percarbonate are concentrated on the activation method and mechanism of percarbonate, and the coupling with other processes such as membrane treatment. This paper can provide valuable references for research and application in the field of percarbonate.