A visualized investigation on the intellectual structure and evolution of waste printed circuit board research during 2000-2016

Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) containing various metals and hazardous materials are considered as a secondary resource and an environmental pollution source. A systematic overview of WPCB study was conducted by using CiteSpace. The relevant knowledge of 242 documents was collected from SCI-Expanded database (SCIE) and saved as txt files. A 556-node and 636-link network and 17 clusters were obtained. Based on co-citation network, nonmetallic material treatment and recycling, metal recovery, pyrolysis treatment, and new technology development were successively the most attractive fields in the study period. Timeline pattern showed that mechanical processing attracted great attention in the initial period and profitability assessment was the latest hot spot in WPCB study. The results could provide a reference for future work in WPCB field.