Global characteristics and trends of research on ceramic membranes from 1998 to 2016: Based on bibliometric analysis combined with information visualization analysis

Using bibliometric analysis combined with information visualization analysis, this paper aims at investigating the global characteristics and trends of research on ceramic membranes. According to the 3697 publications from 1998 to 2016 in Science Citation Index Expended, this study was conducted from five major aspects, including basic growth trends analysis, countries/ territories and institutions analysis, categories and journals analysis, keywords analysis, and citation bursts detection. This study revealed positive growth trends of the research on ceramic membranes. The most productive countries and institutions were both from Peoples R China, and the collaborations among countries and institutions were frequent worldwide. The result of categories analysis revealed that the major discipline groups of the research on ceramic membranes were distributed in chemistry, physics, material, and application. Water resource, energy, environmental science and food engineering were the main application fields of ceramic membranes according to the journals analysis. Furthermore, three keyword clusters were identified, indicating that the main research directions of the research on ceramic membranes included membrane filtration, oxygen permeation and the fabrication of ceramic membranes. Finally, the top 20 citation bursts with the maximum burst strength were detected, indicating that the research on oxygen separation and water treatment has been flourishing in recent years.