Analysis of global and Latin‐American trends in nanotoxicology with a focus on carbon nanomaterials: a scientometric approach

Abstract

BACKGROUND:The scientific trends and developments in the field of nanotoxicology were analyzed through a scientometric approach. This study aimed to describe and unravel the main topics on nanomaterials concerning their potential toxicity. It was generated four databases: two for global nanotoxicological papers (Ds1 and Ds2) and two with a Latin-American focus (LA1 and LA2). Ds2 and LA2 databases were constructed with studies dealing with the toxic effects of carbon nanomaterials. Scientometric analyses were performed using CiteSpace software. The following items were evaluated: frequencies, burst, centrality for co-citations of Web of Science categories, keywords, references, authors, and countries.RESULTS: Global analysis resulted in a total of 29 798 papers for Ds1 and 3835 for Ds2. Latin-American papers resulted in 1397 articles for LA1 and 148 for LA2. Scientometric analyses indicated a specialization of the topics covered over time, ranging from general categories (such as Chemistry) to more specialized ones (such as Genetics or Neurosciences). Nano-silver prevailed in the nanotoxicological studies and graphene dominated in the field of carbon nanomaterials. In the last 5 years, a prominent growth has been observed in the number of studies that focus on the potential impact of nanomaterials on the environment.CONCLUSION: The research efforts in nanotoxicology have been mainly concentrated on assays that use nano-silver; meanwhile, in carbon nanomaterials, the focus has been concentrated on toxicological tests with graphene. Overall, we stress the importance of nanotoxicology as a strategy to obtain scientific information that can aid in the environmental sustainability of nanotechnologies.

In focus: latest development of nanotechnology in Latin America

“…Geracitano et al carried out a survey on a large number of published literatures on toxicity of nanomaterials. 2 It was found that most of the literature was focused on one particular nanomaterial, Ag nanoparticles, which have shown good antimicrobial activities. For carbon nanomaterials, a major class of nanomaterials, toxicity research activities are mostly directed towards graphene.…”