With intensifying human therapeutic activities, especially in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 2 pandemic, pharmaceutical residues from prescription and over-the-counter medicines are now 3 ubiquitous in freshwater ecosystems across the globe [1-3]. This represents a major 4 environmental and public health concern, attributed to their chronic as well as acute toxicological 5 impacts, both on humans as well as aquatic organisms, even in very low concentrations . Pharmaceutical substances in aqueous matrices originate primarily from human consumption, via 7 excretion of both metabolized and unmetabolized drugs, as well as incorrect disposal of unused To that end, a wide array of techniques has been extensively tested in recent years, for the removal 14 of PhACs from the effluents of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities and hospital wastewaters.