*2.3. Materials Characterization*

The prepared products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using a JCM-6000 electron microscope (JEOL, Rueil Malmaison, France) to observe the surface morphology of AC and AC-OH. The chemical composition of AC before and after adsorption and AC-OH were characterized through Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR) using a Tensor 27 (Bruker, Wissembourg, France) spectrometer with a ZnSe ATR crystal device. For each spectrum, 20 scans were accumulated with a resolution of 4 cm<sup>−</sup>1. The thermal stability of AC and AC-OH was analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) using a DSC-92 (Setaram, Caluire et Cuire, France) device at a heating rate of 5 ◦C min−<sup>1</sup> from room temperature to 550 ◦C. The zeta potential of each sample dispersion was measured in phase analysis light scattering (PALS) mode using a Zeta sizernanoZS setup (Malvern, Palaiseau). For the zeta measurements, nanoparticle suspension was obtained by adding 100 mg of each sample to 10 mL of ultrapure water.
