Frontier and hot topics in electrochemiluminescence sensing technology based on CiteSpace bibliometric analysis

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is a process in which luminescence is produced by oxidizing or reducing luminophores to transfer radiant charges between electrochemically generated free radicals. Although about 7000 electrochemiluminescence articles have been published in the past 20 years (2000–2021), only a few review articles have summarized the development and application of ECL. In order to better understand the development status, research hotspots and future development trends of ECL technology, it is very necessary to conduct a comprehensive retrospective analysis. This review is based on the bibliometric analysis method of CiteSpace software to quantitatively analyze, visually review and comment on the articles published in the field of ECL in the past 20 years. Quantitatively analyze the authors, the institutional and other basic information to understand the basic development status of ECL, and then visually analyze the high-frequency keywords, burst keywords, keyword clusters, etc., to understand each the evolution of the main research hotspots and development directions of the period, and finally a detailed review and analysis of the selected highly cited articles. We particularly emphasized the development needs of electrochemiluminescence technology in improving the performance of ECL sensors, developing materials with excellent ECL performance, innovating and cooperating with other devices, and developing high-speed and high-throughput ECL sensors. We hope to provide new ideas for promoting the industrial development and clinical application of electrochemiluminescence technology.