Research progress of the POP fugacity model: a bibliometrics-based analysis

With the emergence of environmental issues regarding persistent organic pollutants (POPs), fugacity models have been widely used in the concentration prediction and exposure assessment of POPs. Based on 778 relevant research articles published between 1979 and 2020 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC), the current research progress of the fugacity model on predicting the fate and transportation of POPs in the environment was analyzed by CiteSpace software. The results showed that the research subject has low interdisciplinarity, mainly involving environmental science and environmental engineering. The USA was the most paper-published country, followed by Canada and China. The publications of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lancaster University, and Environment Canada were leading. Collaboration between institutions was inactive and low intensity. Keyword co-occurrence analysis showed that polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were the most concerning compounds, while air, water, soil, and sediment were the most concerning environmental media. Through co-citation cluster analysis, in addition to the in-depth exploration of traditional POPs, research on emerging POPs such as cyclic volatile methyl siloxane and dechlorane plus were new research frontiers. The distribution and transfer of POPs in the soil–air environment have attracted the most attention, and the regional grid model based on fugacity has been gradually improved and developed. The co-citation high-burst detection showed that the research hotspots gradually shifted from pollutant persistence and long-range transport potential to pollutant distribution rules among the different environmental media and the long-distance transmission simulation.