Global mapping of research trends on antibacterial activity of green silver nanoparticles

Abstract

Over the years, the quest for antibacterial agents from green nanoparticles has attracted great attention due to the global rise in the prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria. Although several studies on the antibacterial activity of plant-mediated silver nanoparticles have been documented, no bibliometric studies on the subject have been reported to date. As a result, the present study aimed to assess the global research trends on the antibacterial activity of green silver nanoparticles from 2000 to 2020. In the present study, we explored Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) to extract research articles written in English on the subject within the specified period. Two hundred and sixty-nine (269) eligible research articles were included in the bibliometric analysis and R-package “bibliometrix” was used to analyse the documents for annual scientific publications, authors’ impact, most relevant institutions, countries productivity, frequent words, co-occurrence network, co-citation network and authors/institutions/countries collaboration networks. Based on the analysis, the top three (3) authors, journals, institutions and countries were Kumar V (n = 5), Zangeneh MM (n = 5) and Oh BT (n = 4); King Saud University, Banaras Hindu University and Islamic Azad University; Journal of Cluster Science (n = 10), Applied Organometallic Chemistry (n = 8) and Microbial Pathogenesis (n = 8); India, Iran, and Korea. The study findings highlighted the gaps in a research collaboration that negate productivity. Therefore, we are optimitic that this study would enlighten researchers in the field about the research lapses and the need for research collaboration in future studies.