A metadata survey of photothermal membranes for solar-driven membrane distillation

• 102 articles on photothermal membrane distillation (P-MD) engineering were found. • Articles published in 2017 are the most influential papers in the field. • 264 authors only contributed 1 article, only 8 authors have published 5 or more. • China is the leading country with 50 articles and 48 corresponding authors. • Authors have very positive sentiments about the synthesized P-MD membranes. With the rapid advancement of effective photothermal materials, photothermal membrane distillation (P-MD) has emerged as a new technology for water treatment using solar energy. This technology captures large amounts of solar energy and localizes heating on the membrane-feed water interface using photothermal effects. This research analyses P-MD membrane engineering articles from multiple standpoints using machine learning (ML), data mining (DM), and bibliometrics. The results show the outlines (number of authors, annual growth rate, average citations, etc.) and details (influential authors, countries, articles, social networks, metrics, sentiment, emotion, objectivity, similarity, etc.) of 102 articles published between 2017–2024. We find that 385 authors contribute to the P-MD membrane engineering field, 44 journals are identified, and the average global citation per article is 41.66. Most articles (23) were published in 2022. Based on different metrics, Dr. Li Q. is the leader in the field. 5 core clusters were identified in the country analysis. Authors have a positive sentiment about P-MD membrane engineering, and their writing language is objective and emotion-free (neutral).