Research progress and hot spot analysis of phosphogypsum resource utilization based on CiteSpace

Phosphogypsum is a by-product of the wet production of phosphoric acid. Its long-term and large-scale open-air storage may cause soil and groundwater pollution. Utilization of phosphogypsum resources has become a focus of recent attention. In order to identify research hotspots and development directions in this field, relevant literature on phosphogypsum resource utilization from January 2002 to January 2025 was collected, using the Web of Science (WoS) core database and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database as data sources. The CiteSpace software was used to analyze these papers, and the relevant knowledge graphs were constructed. The research status, hotspots and main existing problems in this field have been summarized, and key development trends have been identified. The results show that in recent years the number of articles on the utilization of phosphogypsum resources has steadily increased. China has published the largest number of papers in this field and plays a leading role in international cooperation. Phosphogypsum resource utilization has gradually diversified from a single research direction. Technological applications and policy orientation of phosphogypsum resource utilization in China have been the main threads throughout the entire process. Research hotspots in phosphogypsum resource utilization include building materials, environmental remediation, soil improvement and conditioning components, and the preparation/recovery of high-value products. The main unresolved problems are that the impurity components in phosphogypsum affect product performance, commercializing laboratory research results is difficult, and that uniform standards are lacking.