The rapid increase in population, urbanization, and industrialization, along with inadequate water quality monitoring and wastewater management, contribute heavily to the pollution of water resources. Among the water contaminants of major concern, heavy metals are particularly considered as the most worrisome. Heavy metals tend to accumulate in the tissues of aquatic organisms (Ahmed et al., 2019; Rajeshkumar & Li, 2018; Tabrez et al., 2021) and thus increase in concentration upon moving higher up the food chain. This indicates that once humans ingest these organisms, they have a high risk of experiencing health problems as heavy metals are absorbed into their bodies, leading to the formation of diseases that can be life-threatening. Lead, for instance, can cause kidney and nervous system damage, mental retardation, and cancer (Carolin et al., 2017; Pratush et al., 2018; Vareda et al., 2019; Wani et al., 2020; Zamora-Ledesma et al., 2021). These harmful effects of heavy metals on the human body and the environment require the development of cost-effective technologies to efficiently detect and remove them from water.