Search

Impact of heavy metal (HM) pollution and its understanding on environment as well as human beings has grown a lot during the last few decades. The goal of this study is to create a scientometric study on heavy metal contamination, in the period 1989 to 2020, in order to provide futuristic goals for the new researchers on wastewater treatment. For this, a search was conducted in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, related to heavy metal pollution. Totally, 37,154 records were collected during the study period from 1989 to 2020. The findings revealed that China, the United States, and India has most referenced papers across a wide range of trans disciplinary issues such as toxicity, technology, and pollution. As a result, this study concludes that more research on various treatment methods is required in order to obtain high-quality water for consumption and routine activities, with the incorporation of various treatment tasks poses various challenges for the upcoming future studies. [Display omitted] • A bibliometric study is performed an heavy metal pollution between 1989 and 2020. • 37,154 records were critically analyzed to extract the bibliographic maps. • China, USA and India are the leading countries in heavy metal pollution research. • Advanced oxidation, coagulation-flocculation, adsorption, and membrane filtering technologies were focussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]