The history, interests and future of polyphenylene sulfide: A bibliometric analysis

Polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) with unique performance advantages and development potential is widely used in electronics, aerospace, environmental protection, automobile, machinery, textile, chemical, pharmacy, environmental protection and other industries. The researches on PPS material are constantly advancing and improving in both quantity and quality. To clarify the progress and status, and to explore current focus and development trend of PPS at a global level, the bibliometric analysis was used based on Web of Science Core Collection database. 1118 papers were retrieved, and countries or regions, institutions, journals, authors, research areas, author keywords, and highly cited articles were discussed in detail. The results of bibliometric analysis show that China was the dominant country in terms of contributions of paper output, followed by the USA, South Korea, Japan, India, and Germany. Germany and China both were the most active partner which worked with other high productive countries. “Polymer science” was the most attractive research area with 451 papers involved in. “Journal of Applied Polymer Science” was the most comprehensive source of PPS material publications and with the highest h-index. The author keywords “mechanical property”, “behavior”, “composite”, “morphology”, “kinetics”, “friction”, “tribological property” and “crystallization” reflected a high level attention and hot topics for PPS. Based on the results of bibliometric analysis, the research progress and achievements of preparation, performance improvement and application field expansion in recent years were summarized and explained. To achieve more comprehensive performance and to be suitable for more special applications in various fields, the enhancement and toughening of PPS, the modification by blending or alloying with other polymers or other reinforcing materials, the production of PPS ultrafine fiber and PPS membrane were shown as the research emphasis.