Enhancing the catalytic activity of inorganic minerals is crucial for advancing wastewater treatment technologies. In this study, carbon and lab-scale minerals were combined to develop a novel carbon-based material, termed paired mineral carbon (PMC), using rice husk (RH) as the carbon source. Montmorillonite (MMt), goethite (GTt), and hybrid of goethite and MMt were utilized to prepare the PMC. The resulting material exhibited an increased specific surface area of 187 m2g-1, and demonstrated exceptional activation efficiency of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for degrading diethyl phthalate (DEP). A pseudo-first-order kinetic constant (k1) of 0.923 min-1 was achieved at pH 6.0. Pairing minerals synergistically altered PMC's structure, which had the highest ID/IG ratio (0.87) indicative of abundant defective sites in its hierarchical porous structure. Reactive species such as SO4 center dot-, center dot OH, and 1O2 were identified as key contributors to DEP degradation through electron spin resonance (ESR) and quencher experiment. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further revealed preferential radical attack on DEP at specific atomic sites (f0 values: 0.0837-0.1027). Furthermore, the lab-scale synthesized PMC costs $8.08 kg-1. More versatile than commercial activated carbon ($10 kg-1). The simple, adaptive, scalable synthesis optimizes industrial costs. Moreover, phytotoxicity assessment demonstrated that PMC/PMS treatment significantly reduced DEP toxicity, promoting healthier growth of Raphanus sativus and Zea mays seedlings. These findings highlight the potential of PMC as an eco-friendly, efficient and economical catalyst for advanced wastewater treatment, offering a sustainable approach to managing both chemical pollutant and herbicide phytotoxicity.

A major global concern for food security and human health is the indiscriminate discharge and consequent accumulation of heavy metals from various anthropogenic sources into the environment. Chromium (Cr) is one of the most common toxic effluents that pollute agricultural soil. Chromium intake affects plant metabolism, photosynthetic activity, growth, and productivity. In the present study, triacontanol (TRI) was exogenously supplied via seed priming and foliar spraying (10 ppm and 20 ppm) to alleviate Cr (60 mg/kg) stress in Raphanus sativus L. (radish). Chromium reduced shoot length by 65.21%, roots length by 66.28%, gas exchange attributes by 36.23%, mineral content by 52.55%, and phenol content by 11.11%, but the ascorbic acid content increased by 43.23%. Moreover, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) activity increased by 26.34%, which reduced the degree of oxidative damage caused by Cr. Additionally, elevated nutritional contents (Zn+2, Mg+2, K+, and Na+), total photosynthetic pigments (34.42%) and proline contents were correlated with relatively higher levels of ascorbic acid. Interestingly, exogenous TRI administration reduced the oxidative damage caused by Cr. In general, our findings demonstrated that seed priming and foliar supplementation with TRI improved R. sativus plant's tolerance to Cr by reducing its accumulation and restoring oxidative equilibrium.