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Heavy metals are a threat against human health. During the last century, with increased industrial activities, many water resources have been contaminated by heavy metals. Meanwhile the number of scientific studies about removing these toxic substances from aqueous environments has increased exponentially. According to bibliometric analysis the number of articles from 2000 to 2019 experienced a 1700% growth rate. China, India and the United States have published the greatest number of top-cited articles on the topic, with China in first place by a large margin. Six clusters of papers (by topic) were identified. From among the processes such as adsorption, membrane filtration, and ion exchange, adsorption has the lion's share of the investigations. Technical and efficiency considerations, as well as environmental impact and cost-effectiveness, were chosen as criteria to compare different methods. According …