The administration of cytostatic drugs in chemotherapy is steadily increasing, triggering thus a risk to the environment. Identifying powerful ways to effectively remove these hazardous pollutants from hospital and effluent wastewater before they discharge into the aquatic environment remains a critical and challenging task. Adsorption is among the most effective ways to treat contaminated water due to the wide availability and selectivity of the adsorbents besides the simplicity and the low start-up costs of the technique. In this work, a geopolymer, elaborated from an illito-kaolinitic clay (Douiret region of Tunisia) and industrial waste (silica fume and phosphogypsum), has been tested as promising decontamination of the cytostatic drugs paclitaxel (PCX) and irinotecan (IRI) from water samples. The foamed geopolymer was characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis before and after adsorption. Adsorption batch assays were performed using different concentrations of PCX and IRI, contact times and environmental conditions. The geopolymer had an excellent removal efficiency (almost 100% for PCX and 89% for IRI) using 20 mg of adsorbent and 2.5 mg/L of each drug concentration. The characterization results showed that cytostatic drugs were adsorbed to the geopolymer through physical interactions, pore filling, electrostatic attraction and hydrogen bonding. The specific surface area and pore volume of the geopolymer were 82.23 m²/g and 0.19 cm³/g, respectively. In addition to its cost-effective properties, the geopolymer demonstrated excellent efficiency in contaminated natural samples (including influent, effluent wastewater and surface water) denoting a great application for water purification.

化疗中细胞抑制药物的给药正在稳步增加，从而引发对环境的风险。在医院和废水排放到水生环境中之前，确定有效去除医院和污水中有害污染物的有效方法仍然是一项关键且具有挑战性的任务。吸附是处理受污染水的最有效方法之一，因为吸附剂的广泛可用性和选择性，以及该技术的简单性和低启动成本。在这项工作中，由伊利基高岭石粘土（突尼斯的 Douiret 地区）和工业废料（硅灰和磷石膏）制成的地聚合物已被测试为有望对水样中的细胞抑制药物紫杉醇 （PCX） 和伊立替康 （IRI） 进行净化。采用 X 射线衍射、傅里叶变换红外、扫描电子显微镜和热重分析对吸附前后的泡沫地聚合物进行了表征。使用不同浓度的 PCX 和 IRI、接触时间和环境条件进行吸附批量分析。使用 20 mg 吸附剂和 2.5 mg/L 每种药物浓度时，该地聚合物具有出色的去除效率（PCX 几乎为 100%，IRI 为 89%）。表征结果表明，细胞抑制药物通过物理相互作用、孔隙填充、静电吸引和氢键吸附到地聚合物上。地聚合物的比表面积和孔体积分别为 82.23 m²/g 和 0.19 cm³/g。 除了具有成本效益的特性外，该地聚合物在受污染的天然样品（包括进水、污水和地表水）中也表现出优异的效率，因此在水净化方面具有很好的应用。