“…Water pollution caused by metal pollutants has received tremendous attention due to the increases in their discharged volumes and emission amounts (Cao et al., 2017; Qi et al., 2017). Pb(II) being one of the most toxic metal pollutants, its concentration in discharged wastewater has been strictly limited, for example the discharged concentration of total lead in China is strictly limited within 0.2 mg l −1 according to the published Chinese regulation of “Emission standard of pollutants for electroplating (GB 21900–2008),” while the discharge limit for lead by USEPA is 0.005 mg l −1 (Arbabi et al., 2015; Asuquo et al., 2017; Qi et al., 2017). Up to present, numerous techniques such as chemical precipitation, coagulation, biological treatment, ion exchange and adsorption, solvent extraction, and membrane separation have been developed for removing this pollutant from aqueous solutions (Abo-Farha et al., 2009; Akar et al., 2012; Baharuddin et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2009; Ghassabzadeh et al., 2010; Kang et al., 2011).…”