Environmental Research 210 (2022) 112975 Available online 20 February 2022 0013-9351/© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. A state of the art review on electrochemical technique for the remediation of pharmaceuticals containing wastewater Walid Nabgan a, b , M. Saeed c , A.A. Jalil a, b, * , B. Nabgan a , Y. Gambo d , M.W. Ali a, b , M. Ikram e, ** , A.A. Fauzi a , A.H.K. Owgi a, b , I. Hussain f , Asad A. Thahe g , Xun Hu h , N.S. Hassan a , A. Sherryna a , Abudukeremu Kadier i, *** , M.Y. Mohamud a, b a School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia b Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia c Department of Chemistry, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan d Chemical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia e Solar Cell Applications Research Lab, Department of Physics, Government College University Lahore, 54000, Punjab, Pakistan f Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, People’s Republic of China g Department of X- Ray and Sonar, Faculty Of Medical Technology, AL-Kitab University, Iraq h School of Material Science and Engineering, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, PR China i Laboratory of Environmental Science and Technology, The Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Functional Materials and Devices for Special Environments, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Urumqi, 830011, China A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Overview Electrochemical Wastewater Bibliometric Anodic oxidation Antibiotics Web of science ABSTRACT Pharmaceutical wastewater is a frequent kind of wastewater with high quantities of organic pollutants, although little research has been done in the area. Pharmaceutical wastewaters containing antibiotics and high salinity may impair traditional biological treatment, resulting in the propagation of antibiotic resistance genes. The potential for advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to break down hazardous substances instead of present techniques that essentially transfer contaminants from wastewater to sludge, a membrane flter, or an adsorbent has attracted interest. Among a variety of AOPs, electrochemical systems are a feasible choice for treating pharmaceutical wastewater. Many electrochemical approaches exist now to remediate rivers polluted by re- fractory organic contaminants, like pharmaceutical micro-pollutants, which have become a severe environmental problem. The frst part of this investigation provides the bibliometric analysis of the title search from 1970 to 2021 for keywords such as wastewater and electrochemical. We have provided information on relations between keywords, countries, and journals based on three felds plot, inter-country co-authorship network analysis, and co-occurrence network visualization. The second part introduces electrochemical water treatment approaches customized to these very distinct discarded fows, containing how processes, electrode materials, and operating conditions infuence the results (with selective highlighting cathode reduction and anodic oxidation). This section looks at how electrochemistry may be utilized with typical treatment approaches to improve the inte- grated system’s overall effciency. We discuss how electrochemical cells might be benefcial and what com- promises to consider when putting them into practice. We wrap up our analysis with a discussion of known technical obstacles and suggestions for further research. * Corresponding author. School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. ** Corresponding author. *** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: wnabgan@gmail.com (W. Nabgan), aishahaj@utm.my (A.A. Jalil), dr.muhammadikram@gcu.edu.pk (M. Ikram), abudukeremu@ms.xjb.ac.cn (A. Kadier). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envres https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.112975 Received 30 November 2021; Received in revised form 29 January 2022; Accepted 16 February 2022