For a typical experiment, 0.5–6.5 g of CNC powder was dispersed in 100 mL of distilled water, using a shear mixer (IKA, ultra-turrax T25, Germany) at room temperature. The resultant CNC suspension was sonicated for 5 min in an ice bath with a tip sonicator (Qsonica Q700) at
amplitude 2, in order to obtain individual CNC nanoparticles. For freeze drying, CNC aqueous suspension was poured in a glass vessel and placed in a refrigerator set at −50 °C, overnight. Then, the frozen suspension