Novel study on microbial fuel cells via a comprehensive bibliometric and dynamic approach

Abstract

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are eco-friendly and useful bioelectrical devices that harness the natural metabolisms of microbes to produce electrical power directly from organic materials. In this study, a bibliometric analysis is conducted to evaluate MFC research from 2001 to 2018 on the basis of the Science Citation Index Expanded database. Overall, MFC research has experienced a dramatic increase over last 18 years, with an exponential growth in the accumulated number of publications. Most publications are closely related to the industrialization and commoditization of MFCs, along with environmental issues, which are currently the biggest global challenges in MFC studies. A small proportion (4.34%) of the scientific journals published more than half (54.34%) of the total articles in the MFC field. Articles from the top 10 countries/regions accounted for the majority (83.16%) of the total articles, clearly indicating that advanced MFC technologies are currently dominated by these countries/regions. Moreover, an increasing number of MFC researchers are considering two-chamber and three-chamber MFC reactions. In particular, they are focusing on environmental technology instead of merely improving the efficiency of electricity generation. Materials research in the MFC field is still a popular area worldwide, and many researchers have focused on novel and eco-friendly cathode and anode developments. Meanwhile, only a few MFC studies are concerned with biological research.

An Analysis of Global Trends from 1990 to 2022 of Microbial Fuel Cells: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Although MFCs have been used to generate bioenergy in different ways and with a wide variety of substrates, very little research has been conducted on the bibliometric analysis of scientific publications from a global approach in the literature review [27]. Ni et al, 2021 presented their trend research on bibliometric analysis (BEA) for a period of 18 years from 2001 to 2018, where they investigated the cumulative number of publications inti-mately related to industrialization and commoditization along with environmental issues, with an emphasis on the global challenges of microbial fuel cells using the Web of Science (WoS) database as a source [28]. Similarly, Naseer et al, 2021 conducted their research on MFCs and their trend of publication history, leading journals, leading countries, and leading organizations through bibliometric systems (BES) from 1970 to 2020 in the WoS database [29].…”

Environment and food safety: a novel integrative review

“…The scientometric-based statistical method provides a powerful tool to disclose research trends and progress on certain research areas through data analysis of published documents. However, although there are already quite a few scientometric studies on other research areas (Jiang et al 2018;Li et al 2018;Kamali et al 2020;Khalaj et al 2020;Zakka et al 2021;Zeb et al 2021;Ni et al 2021), the scientometric studies on environment and food safety are very limited. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide an integrative review on environment and food safety via objective statistical analysis coupled with subjective review on strategies to protect the environment and ensure food safety, followed by a discussion on emerging research topics.…”