A Comprehensive Analysis of the per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) research landscape through AI-assisted text mining

Abstract

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been widely used in various industrial applications due to their unique properties. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of PFAS research trends using a novel approach combining text mining techniques and large-scale language models (LLMs). PFAS-related scientific literature published from 1980 to 2024 was gathered from Scopus, and KH Coder and Claude 3 were used to perform the analysis. The results showed a significant increase in research output and a clear shift in research topics over the past 40 years. Whereas in the past, the focus was on analytical methods, more recently, the emphasis has been on environmental fate, toxicity assessment, alternative compounds, and regulation. With Claude 3, research areas can now be identified without reviewing the results of expert text mining. Comparisons of AI-extracted trends with insights from traditional review articles showed strong agreement, confirming the effectiveness of this approach. These findings suggest the need for continued interdisciplinary research on PFAS such as the development of remediation strategies, elucidation of health effects, and evidence-based policymaking. This study showed the possibility of integrating text mining and LLM for a comprehensive analysis of research trends, which will accelerate future research and development strategies.