## 2 Materials and Chemical Reagents
### Characterization of Synthesized Materials  
Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) was applied to access the mesostructure ordering of materials obtained using a Bruker D8 Advanced X-ray diffractometer equipped with Cu K\(\alpha\) radiation operated at an X-ray power of 40 kV and 40 mA. The XRD patterns were recorded at room temperature, scanning from a 20 of 1-10\({}^{\circ}\) at a 0.02\({}^{\circ}\) step size and 1 s count time. The hexagonal lattice parameter (a\({}_{0}\)) was calculated from the interplanar spacing (d-spacing) of the (100) reflection peak using the equation: a\({}_{0}=2d_{100}/\sqrt{3}\). Nitrogen (N\({}_{2}\)) adsorption-desorption measurement at \(-\)196 \({}^{\circ}\)C was performed on a Micrometrics ASAP2020 surface area and porosity analyzer to determine the texturalproperties of the synthesized materials. All samples were degassed at 150 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 2 h prior to the measurements. The specific surface area (S\({}_{\rm BET}\)) was calculated from the adsorption data in the relative pressure (P/P\({}_{0}\)) range of 0.02\(-\)0.2 using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) equation. External surface area (S\({}_{\rm ext}\)) was estimated from the t-plot slope. The mesopore volume (V\({}_{\rm P}\)) was calculated from the intercept of the linear portion of the t-plot in the relative pressure range, above which N\({}_{2}\) was condensed inside the primary mesopores. The pore diameter (D\({}_{\rm p}\)) was determined by the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) calculation using the desorption data. The total pore volume (V\({}_{\rm T}\)) was attained from the cumulative N\({}_{2}\) adsorbed volume at P/P\({}_{0}\) of 0.990. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to determine the silica and rubber content of the nanocomposite catalysts. Each sample (\(\sim\)10 mg) was heated from 40-850 \({}^{\circ}\)C at a rate of 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C/min under an air flow (50 mL/min) using the PerkinElmer Pyris Diamond thermogravimetric analyzer. Functional groups of the synthesized materials were revealed via attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). ATR-FTIR spectra were recorded on the Nicolet iS10 FT-IR spectrometer over 500-4000 cm\({}^{-1}\) with 64 scans at a resolution of 4 cm\({}^{-1}\). The mesostructured arrangement of materials was visualized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using the JEOL JEM-2010 transmission electron microscope at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV. The distribution of the main elements in the synthesized materials was examined via scanning TEM with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS) mapping using the JEOL JEM-2010 transmission electron microscope at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV in the dark field mode. The sulfur incorporated into the functionalized materials was measured using the PE 2400 CHNS/O Elemental analyzer. Cystine was used as the standard for eight repetitive analyses to obtain the K factor. Approximately, 2 mg of the standards and samples was used to analyze and correct the data with K factor. The chemical states of oxygen and sulfur on the material surface were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) using the Kratos Axis Ultra DLD X-ray photoelectron spectrometer equipped with a monochromatic Al K\(\alpha\) X-ray source (1486.7 eV) operated at 15 kV and 5 mA. Survey scans were measured at a spot size of 400 \(\upmu\)m and a constant pass energy of 200 eV. The calibration was performed by setting the C1s band at 284.5 eV. The deconvolution of high-resolution XPS element spectra was performed using the XPSPEAK41 software. The acidity of functionalized materials was evaluated by acid-base titration. Generally, 0.5 g of sample was mixed with 10 mL of THF and 10 mL of ethanol. The mixture was shaken at room temperature for 24 h. The resulting mixture was then titrated with 0.02 M NaOH aqueous solution. Hydrophobicity of the synthesized materials was determined by H\({}_{2}\)O adsorption-desorption measurement using the BEL Japan BELSORP-max instrument.