Research hotspots and trends of comprehensive utilization of phosphogypsum: Bibliometric analysis

Phosphogypsum is a by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry. It is generally treated by stacking, which not only causes environmental pollution, but also wastes resources. Therefore, the harmless, comprehensive, and high-value utilization of phosphogypsum has attracted more and more scholars around the world. From the perspective of bibliometrics, this paper systematically and comprehensively describes the research progress, trends and hot spots of phosphogypsum resource utilization. This article is based on a scientific network database, and a total of 1067 articles from 1985 to 2020 were collected. Then, use VOSViewer software to perform co-occurrence, co-citation analysis and cluster analysis. The visual analysis results demonstrate that the research on the resource utilization of phosphogypsum shows the characteristics of rapid growth. The active countries are mainly China, Brazil, Spain and the United States. Four of the top 10 active organizations are from China. It systematically expounds the changes in research hotspots in this field at different stages and possible future research hotspots. Including the gradual attention to the preparation of phosphogypsum building materials, phosphogypsum adsorption materials, and radioactive elements in phosphogypsum; the extraction of rare earth elements from phosphogypsum; the use of phosphogypsum to prepare fertilizer or soil improvement. Research shows that phosphogypsum can be reasonably designed, transformed, and used in different fields.However, the radioactivity contained in phosphogypsum should be paid attention to because it has an impact on humans and the environment. We believe that this research provides a comprehensive and systematic overview for future research on phosphogypsum resource utilization. •For the first time, the current research status of phosphogypsum is proposed by bibliometrics.•The extraction of building materials and rare earth elements reflects current research hotspots.•The environment and material application of phosphogypsum are discussed in detail.•Prospects and challenges in the field of comprehensive utilization of phosphogypsum are proposed.