Bibliometric Analysis of the Research on Photo-electrocatalysis and Its Possible Application to Wastewater Treatment

Background: Possible applications of photoelectrocatalysis in the field of environmentally sustainable processes have inspired an exponentially increasing number of papers in the last decades. Less frequently, bibliometric analyses are presented, which are especially useful when a considerable amount of data is involved: metadata can be viewed from micro to macro perspective and may suggest ideas for future research. Objective: The objective of this study is to derive information on the research trends and to individuate possible gaps in specific topics, as well information on the authors and their related countries and institutes, and to quantify possible cooperation patterns between them. Methods: In addition to the classic data analyses immediately available on the database, such as the trend of the number of publications per year and the list of the most active authors or countries, the bibliometric analysis has been carried out using the VOSviewer software. Co-authorship and cocitation analyses have been performed, as well as co-occurrence of the keywords explicitly indicated by the authors. Conclusion: Based on the publications in the SCOPUS database, the present work analysed the metadata relating to scientific articles published in the last two decades, dedicated to the research on photo-electrocatalytic processes and their possible application on wastewater treatment. Based on the list of the references present in the examined papers, the co-authorship analysis and the co-citation analysis also allowed the identification of the authors and the publications which have been most influential on the research on the examined topics. Indication has been obtained on the trend of the main topics investigated in time, as well as the current gaps in terms of content-wise and geographic cooperation.