“…For example, Pb 2+ can be adsorbed by montmorillonite, kaolinite, sepiolite, attapulgite, illite, rectorite, and bentonite (Tang et al, 1981;Zhang, 2012;Lai, 2013), and Cu 2+ can be adsorbed by sepiolite, kaolinite, illite, bentonite, and montmorillonite (Koppelman et al, 1977;He et al, 2000;Khosravi et al, 2016;Cecilia et al, 2017;Chen, 2017).. In addition, numerous synthetic adsorbents have been developed to remove heavy metal toxins and organic pollutants from wastewater (Dai et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022). Examples of these include the hybrid adsorbent PANI@KG for water treatment (Ouis et al, 2022) and activated carbon based on prickly pear seeds and a conductive polymer matrix based on polyaniline for the removal of https://doi.org/10.1180/clm.2022.20 Published online by Cambridge University Press anionic Congo red dye from aqueous solutions (Lahreche et al, 2022).…”