Effective enhancement of the emission ef fi ciency of tetraphenylporphyrin in solid state by tetraphenylethene modification

Nn Jing,Yiji Wng,Anjun Qin,Jing Zhi Sun,*,BenZhong Tng,,c,*

a MOEKey Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization,Department of Polymer Science and Engineering,Zhejiang University,Hangzhou 310027,China

b Guangdong Innovative Research Team,State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices,South China University of Technology,Guangzhou 510641,China

c Department of Chemistry,Institute for Advanced Study,Institute of Molecular Functional Materials,and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience,The Hong Kong University of Science&Technology,Hong Kong,China

Key words:Aggregation-induced emission Tetraphenylethene Porphyrin Red emission Molecular packing

ABSTRACT Tetraphenylporphyrin(TPP)is a typical red-emitting luminogen show ing evident aggregation caused quenching(ACQ)effect.To enhance its emission ef fi ciency in solid state,four tetraphenylethene(TPE)units were attached to the four meso-positions of TPPcore via ester group through a facile and efficient route.The derived compound(4(TPE?COO)-TPP)emits red fluorescence(peak at 655 nm)with a good quantum ef fi ciency(F)of 7.5%,which is much higher than that of TPP(F?0.1%).In molecular aggregate formed in tetrahydrofuran(THF)and w ater mixtures,4(TPE?COO)-TPPhas a relative high F of 12%.The evidently subdued ACQ behavior can be ascribed to the propeller shape and bulky size of the TPEunits,which prevent the close packing and strong p-p interaction of TPPcores.The loose molecular packing and weak interchromophore interactionswere validated by different characterization methodsincluding UV-visible absorption,steady state and transient fluorescence spectroscope,X-ray diffraction and scanning electronic microscope observations.It is noted that 4(TPE?COO)-TPPhas an emission ef fi ciency of 14.4%in dilute THFsolution.This is due to the conjugation break between the TPPand TPEmoieties,the rotational and vibrational motionsof the phenyl groupscannot quench the fluorescence of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP.

Porphyrin and its derivatives are one kind of the most intensively investigated heterocyclic organic compounds in more than a century[1,2].The macrocyclic topology and electronic structure makes porphyrin perfect in coordination with metal cations,highly aromatic,optically and electronically active yet highly stable in chemistry.It is well-know n that porphyrins have show n fascinating performances for catalysts,molecular recognition,infra-red fluorescent sensors,building blocks of electron/energy transfer arrays,photodynamic therapy agents,and so on[3–11].These promising applications are driving the continuous development of design and synthesis of functional porphyrins.Up to now,a variety of different structures and functions have been achieved by chemical modification with proper substituents at the meso-and/or β-positions of the porphine core[12–16].Most porphyrin derivatives,no matter meso-orβ-substituted ones,are prone to form aggregates in solution with high concentration and in solid states,due to the intrinsic strong intermolecular p-p interaction,which tends to heavily quench the fluorescence emission[17–19],a photophysical process termed as aggregation-caused quenching(ACQ)[20].The ACQ effect greatly influences the optical properties and limits their practical applications as the active component in fluorescent sensors and photodynamic therapy agents.

To tackle this thorny problem,three strategies have been explored.The fi rst strategy,also the classical one,is to prevent the luminogensfrom close packing thereby prohibitsthe ACQeffect.To this end,a few schemes,such as decorating porphyrin cores with dendritic branches,introducing porphyrins into metal organic frameworks,and burying porphyrins into hydrogels or silica matrix,have been attempted[21–28].All these attempts have show n positive impact on the alleviation of ACQ effect.However,complex synthetic steps are necessary and the alleviation effect is still limited because molecular aggregation is a thermodynamically spontaneous process.

The second category is to make use of the advantageous molecular aggregation.It is well-accepted that the formation of J-aggregates can lead to enhanced and red-shifted emission for the p-conjugated luminogens.But pure J-aggregate of porphyrin derivatives have been rarely found,because there are no welldeveloped rules to guide the design of J-aggregate[29–33].Consequently,the achievement of J-or other kinds of aggregates(e.g.,H-aggregate and X-aggregate)depends on experimental condition,the chemical structure and property of the substituents and substitution modes.

A recently emerged strategy,or the third,is to take the advantage of the new concept of aggregation-induced emission(AIE)[34].AIE is a phenomenological description of the unique emission property of organic dyes,which are weakly or nonemissive in dilute solution but highly emissive in aggregate/solid states.Tetraphenylethene(TPE)is a representative AIE-active luminogen or an AIE-gen that has been w idely used in the construction of fluorescent materials[35,36].Up to now,it has been con fi rm ed that linking one or more TPEmoieties to an ACQ-characteristic luminogen may result in an AIE-active one.This strategy is successful in the cases of modifying anthracene,phenanthrene,pyrene,triphenylamine,borondipyrromethene,perylenebisimide,diketopyrrolopyrrole and so on[37–46].It is a reasonable deduction that the modification of porphyrin with TPE moieties may convert the TPE-porphyrin conjugate from an ACQto an AIE compound.

The decoration of porphyrin with TPE moieties was fi rstly reported by Bhosale and colleagues,but the authors had not addressed w hether the obtained molecule was an AIE-active one or not[47].Recently,Guo et al.reported the synthesis and aggregation-induced emission enhancement property of a porphyrin derivative(Por TPE)decorated with four TPEunits at mesopositions of porphine core[48].Por TPE emits red light in dilute THF(tetrahydrofuran)solution and its tw o Q-bands appear at 601 nm and 660 nm.It is noticed that the emission intensity of Por TPE nanoparticles at 660 nm is 4 times stronger than the counterpart porphyrin without TPE-modification.In addition,the nano-particles demonstrated high contrast fluorescent images w hen they were used for in vitro imaging HeLa cells.

Here,we report the synthesis and photophysical property of a novel TPE-modified tetraphenylporphyrin(TPP).In the present work,the TPE units are linked to TPP core through ester group.Such a molecular design has at least three advantages.(i)The esteri fi cation reaction catalyzed by N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodi-imide has higher ef fi ciency than the reported Suzuki coupling reaction between tetra-(para-bromophenyl)-porphyrin and boronic acid modified TPE.(ii)The ester linkage breaks the conjugation between the porphyrin core and TPE moieties,thus the resultant shows the expected high emission ef fi ciency both in solution and solid.(iii)The efficient red emission of the derivative is much higher than TPP.

The synthetic route to target compound of 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(benzene-4,1-diyl)tetrakis(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)benzoate)-porphyrin(4(TPE?COO)-TPP)is show n in Scheme 1.The experimental details are described in the Supporting information.The fi nal product is a purple solid and the total yield is 68.7%.The chemical structure and purity of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPwere characterized with multiple spectroscopic methods and the data are summarized in Fig.S1 in Supporting information.But the overall yield of Por TPE reported by Guo et al.is only about 5.6%[48].In addition to the high yield,4(TPE?COO)-TPPalso has a higher thermal stability than the pristine TPP solid(Fig.S2 in Supporting information).

We fi rstly examined the photophysical properties of the obtained 4(TPE?COO)-TPP.Its absorption and emission spectra in dilute tetrahydrofuran(THF)solution(1?10?6mol/L)and some other solvents were measured and the resultsare depicted in Fig.1,Figs.S3 and S4 in Supporting Information.As depicted in Fig.1A(fw=0),the B band of TPP appears at 416 nm and the discrete Q band appears at 513,547,592 and 650 nm,which are coincident to the results reported by Kim et al.[26].The absorption features of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP are nearly identical to TPP.A sharp and strong B band peaked at 418 nm and a group of weak and successive fourpeaked band appears at 515,550,592 and 650 nm(Fig.1C,fw=0).The slight red-shift of absorption spectrum suggests very limited contribution of the TPE units to TPP core.Besides the absorption featuresfor TPPmoiety,there isa broad and moderate band ranged from 300 nm to 380 nm and peaked at around 325 nm,which is assigned to the absorption of TPE units.

Scheme 1.Synthetic route to 4(TPE?COO)-TPP.

Fig.1.Absorption(A)and photoluminescence(PL)(B)spectra of TPPin THF/w ater mixtures with different w ater fractions(f w,%by volume).Absorption(C)and PL(D)spectra for 4(TPE?COO)-TPP in THF/w ater mixtures with different f w values.Concentration of solute:[4(TPE?COO)-TPP]=[TPP]=1.0?10?6 mol/L;Excitation w avelength(l ex):514 nm.

In dilute THFsolution,the photoluminescence(PL)spectrum of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP(Fig.1D,fw=0)is very similar to that of TPP(Fig.1B,fw=0),a main emission band centered at 655 nm and a secondary peak at around 715 nm.Such a special emission feature stems from the unique electronic structure of porphyrin,which has tw o bonding orbitals and tw o degenerate anti-bonding orbitals.Accordingly,there are tw o sets of radiative transitions allow ing porphyrin and its derivatives to show a primary(e.g.,655 nm)and a secondary emission peak(e.g.,715 nm).All of the above results indicate that the indirect linking of TPEunits has little influence on the optical property of the TPP core in dilute solution.

In aggregation state,the absorption and emission behaviors of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP and TPP demonstrate differences from those observed in dilute solution,as displayed in Fig.1,which show the UV–vis absorption and PL spectra in THF and w ater mixture solutions with different w ater fractions.Since THFand w ater are good and poor solvents for both TPP and 4(TPE?COO)-TPP respectively,aggregates w ill form in the mixture of THFand w ater with proper fwvalues.The absorption features of TTPin THF/w ater mixtures are identical to that in pure THFsolution w hen fwislower than 80%.When fwis equal to or higher than 80%,the sharp B-band becomes blunt and its intensity decreases evidently(open circles and open squares in Fig.1A).Meanwhile,the absorption maximum red shifts from 416 nm to about 418 nm.These feature changes indicate the existence of interaction between porphyrin chromophores,thereby the formation of molecular aggregation can be deduced.The Q-band peaked at around 513,547,592 and 650 nm shows a little decrease in absorption intensity and small red-shift of absorption maximum,which are in accordance with the changes of B-band and suggest the aggregate formation.

As a derivative of TPP,the changes in absorption features of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP in THF/w ater mixtures demonstrate a similar trend to TPP,except the weak and broad absorption band in the range from 300 nm to 380 nm,which is attributed to TPEmoieties.The decrease in absorption intensity,the red-shift of absorption bands(both B-band and Q-band)and the broadening of the sharp B-band with increasing w ater fraction can be observed(Fig.1C).However,the details have some differences.For 4(TPE?COO)-TPP,the threshold of the absorption feature changes occurs at the fwvalue of 50%,while this value is 80%for TPP.We ascribe the threshold difference to the fact that 4(TPE?COO)-TPP has lower w ater solubility than TPP due to the four peripheral hydrophobic TPEunits on TPPcore,which leadsto the formation of aggregates at a relative lower w ater fraction.

Similar to the emission features observed in the pure THF solution,both 4(TPE?COO)-TPP and TPP in THF/w ater mixture solutions show tw o emission bands,a main band peaked at around 655 nm and a pronounced side band peaked at around 715 nm.With the increasing of w ater fraction from 0 to 50%,the emission intensity of TPP show s a slight enhancement,and then recedes with further increasing of fw.But it undergoes a steep decrease w hen fwapproaches to 80%(comparing the open square and open circle symbols in Fig.1B)or higher(90%,solid circle,Fig.1B).This trend is quantitatively show n in Fig.2 by plotting the emission intensity at 655 nm vs.fw.According to the experimental data displayed in Fig.1A,the dramatically reduced emission intensity corresponds to the formation of molecular aggregates.Thus TPPis a typical ACQ-molecule.

Fig.2.(A)Plot of PL intensity of TPP and 4(TPE?COO)-TPP(the error bars are depicted based on 6 experimental results)at 655 nm vs.f w.(B)Variation of[40_TD DIFF]F/F 0 of TPPand 4(TPE?COO)-TPPwith f w.[41_TD DIFF]F:quantum yield at a certain w ater fraction;[42_TD DIFF]F 0:quantum yield in pure THFsolution.TheF values were evaluated assuming a value of 13.3%for TPPin benzene as standard,upon this value,[42_TD DIFF]F 0 of TPP in pure THF solution was estimated to be 10.4%.Concentration of TPPand 4(TPE?COO)-TPPwas 10 m mol/L.

In comparison with TPP,the emission intensity of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP show s different dependence on fw.As show n by the data in Figs.1D and 2A,the PLintensity has a small enhancement w hen fwchanges from 0 to 40%and then goes dow n with increasing fwfrom 40%to 70%.This turning point is coincident with the decrease in absorbance change of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP(Fig.1C).Further increasing fwfrom 70%to 80%,the relative emission intensity at 655 nm is boosted up again.These observations can be explained as follow ing:TPP is a strong electron donor and TPE with a carboxylate group can be viewed as weak electron acceptor relative to TPP,and the TPEmoieties can tw ist around the TPPcore.With increasing the solvent polarity,the tw isted intermolecular charge transfer(TICT)takes place and the PLis partially quenched.As a proof,the robust absorption B-band of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP in dilute N,N-dimethyl-formamide solution show s a red-shift in comparison with that in dioxane solution(Fig.S3).When fwis further increased,the 4(TPE?COO)-TPPmoleculesform aggregates and the TICT process is restricted thus the emission intensity exhibits a certain enhancement.The emission intensity of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPin THF/water mixture with fwof 80%retains 90%of that in pure THFsolution.Based on the experimental data show n in Fig.1C,molecular aggregates have formed w hen fwis higher than 40%(see open circle and square symbols).These results indicate that the attachment of TPE-moieties onto TPPcore via ester groups has evidently changed the ACQ behaviour of TPP.

To eliminate the variances in PL measurement,the emission quantum ef fi ciency(F)has been measured for both TPP and 4(TPE?COO)-TPPin THF/w ater mixtures and the results obtained in a typical experiment.For TPP,the quantum ef fi ciency in pure THF solution ([49_TD DIFF]F0)is 10.4%.The F value increases slow ly with increasing fwfrom 0 to 70%and the maximum of 12.2%has been recorded at fwof 70%.ThenF drops drastically dow n to about 1.4%w hen fwis over 80%.At fwof 90%,F reduces to 1.1%,which is only about 10%of[42_TD DIFF]F0,which further con fi rmed the ACQcharacteristic of TPP.For 4(TPE?COO)-TPP,[42_TD DIFF]F0is about 14.4%in dilute THFsolution.F undergoes slight increase with increasing fwfrom 0 to 60%and a maximum value of about 15%has been recorded at fwof 60%.Further increasing fwto 70%,the emission ef fi ciency decreases slow ly.When fwis 90%,F changes to 12%,which is 85%of its original value([50_TD DIFF]F0).This is evidently distinct from the behaviour of TPP,which can only retain 10%of its emission ef fi ciency in pure THF solution(Fig.2B).

Due to the highly hydrophobic property,4(TPE?COO)-TPP molecules precipitate quickly in a THF/w ater mixture with high w ater fraction.As a consequent,we cannot check the F value w hen fwis higher than 90%.Alternatively,we directly measured the emission ef fi ciency of solid samples of TPP and 4(TPE?COO)-TPP using integrating sphere technique.The F value of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPsolid pow der is detected to be 7.5%(data on Fig.3A),while the emission from TPP crystal is too weak to be detected(<0.1%,the limit of the detection instrument).No single crystal of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP was obtained after trying for months.Consequently,we only compared the F values for the amorphoussample of TPP with 4(TPE?COO)-TPP.The measured data was only 2.1%,evidently lower than that of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP.These results con fi rm the successful modification of the ACQ property of TPP by linking bulky TPE units to TPP core.

The photographs of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPand TPPpow der samples taken under UV-light and day-light are also displayed in Fig.3.Under UV-light,intense red fluorescence(Fig.3A)is emitted from the purple pow der of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP(Fig.3C).But no recordable fluorescence(Fig.3B)has been detected from the dark-blue purple pow der of TPP(Fig.3D)under UV-light.In comparison with Por TPE[48],4(TPE?COO)-TPPhas not show n typical AIEactivity.Checking the emission spectrum of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPsolid pow der displayed in Fig.S4A,it is found that 4(TPE?COO)-TPP show s moderate PL ef fi ciency and similar emission features in dilute solution,aggregates and solid pow der.We tentatively associated such emission behaviour of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP with the effects of TPE moieties on TPP chromophore.

Fig.3.Photographs for solid pow der of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPtaken under UV-light(A,l ex:365 nm)and daylight(C).Photographs for solid pow der sample of TPP taken under UV-light(B,l ex:365 nm)and day-light(D),respectively.

On one hand,in dilute solution,the rotational and vibrational movements of the phenyl groups in TPE moieties cannot exhaust the excitation energy and have no effects on emission quenching of the porphyrin luminogen because the TPE units are indirectly linked to the porphyrin core.As a result,the F of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP is 14.4%,a little higher than that of TPP(10.4%).And on the other hand,in aggregate and/or solid states,the propeller shape and bulky size of the TPE moieties obstacle the close packing of adjacent porphyrin cores and thereby reduce the fluorescence quenching caused by intermolecular p–p interaction.Meanwhile,the rotational and vibrational movements are restricted in aggregate and/or solid states.Thus,4(TPE?COO)-TPP exhibits good emission ef fi ciency in aggregate(F=12%,fw=90%)and in solid(F=7.5%,amorphous pow der).

The interchromophore interaction can be re fl ected on the absorption features.As show n in Fig.S4B,the absorption maximum of the B-band for TPP solid fi lm appears at around 430 nm,which is 14 nm red-shift compared with TPP in THF solution.The evident red-shift indicates the existence of strong inter-chromophore interaction.For 4(TPE?COO)-TPP solid fi lm,the peak of B-band appears at 420 nm,which is 2 nm red-shift relative to that recorded in THFsolution(Fig.1C).So small spectral shift indicates weak intermolecular interaction.

In principle,for the large p-conjugated molecules,strong interactionsbetween chromophores,on one hand,are bene fi cial to form excimers or exciplexes,and on the other hand,they can provide more channels than the cases that only have weak or no interchromophore interactions for an excited molecule to decay to its ground state.As a result,in the former case,the life-time w ill become longer as compared the aggregates with the dilute solution.While in the latter case,the life time w ill be shortened due to the competition between the non-radiative with the irradiative decays.Thus the intermolecular interaction can be monitored by transient fluorescence spectroscopy.Based on this consideration,we measured the transient fluorescence spectra of TPPand 4(TPE?COO)-TPPin pure THFsolvent and their aggregates formed in THF/w ater mixture solution at fwof 90%.The transient fluorescence spectra cannot be comparatively investigated on TPP and 4TPE-TPPsolids because the emission of TPPsolid is too weak to record analytical emission signals.The experimental data are displayed in Fig.4.

Fig.4.Time-resolved fluorescence decay traces of TPP(A)and 4(TPE?COO)-TPP(B)in pure THFsolution and in THF/w ater mixture at an f w of 90%.[4(TPE?COO)-TPP]:10?6 mol/L;l ex:416 nm;pulse w idth:58.4 ps.

In dilute THFsolution,the life-time of TPP’semission is 10.22 ns and thisparameter reduces to 5.39 ns in aggregation state.The 47%life-time reduction indicates the existence of substantial interchromophore interactions.According to the feature changes observed in the absorption and emission spectra of TPP,there are no obvious evidence indicate the formation of excimer or exciplexes.Therefore,the evidently shortened life-time can be associated with the presence of non-radiative decay channels in the aggregates of TPPmolecules.For 4(TPE?COO)-TPP,the life time in THF solution is 9.61 ns and it becomes 8.42 ns in aggregation state.The life-time reduction is only 12%,indicating the presence of relative weak interchromophore interactions.The measurement data are reasonable because the modification of TPP with four bulky TPE units prevents the 4(TPE?COO)-TPP molecules from close packing in aggregation states.These results are also in good agreement with the spectral feature changes discussed previously(Figs.2 and 3).

Weak interaction between porphyrin cores(p-p interaction)and bulky size effect of the TPEmoiety w ill result in loose packing of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP molecules.Therefore,it is expected that 4(TPE?COO)-TPPmolecules tends to form amorphous solid.On the contrary,in TPPsolid,well-ordered molecular packing is expected.To con fi rm the inferences above,X-ray diffraction(XRD)measurementswere carried out to the solid pow dersof the as-prepared TPP and 4(TPE?COO)-TPPsamples,and the data are displayed in Fig.5.There exist a series of sharp and strong re fl ection peaks in the diffraction pattern of TPP pow der sample,indicating that the sample is a highly crystalline state.Distinct from TPP,there is no strong diffraction peaks can be observed for 4(TPE?COO)-TPP pow der sample and spin-coating fi lm(Figs.5b and c).The pro fi le appearing at around 20?suggests the amorphous solid,and the small and blunt peak appearing at around 27.5?indicates the existence of ordered molecular packing in a certain short range,or the existence of micro-crystalline in the solid sample.The XRD-pattern for solid pow der collected from THF/w ater mixture with 70% w ater fraction also suggests the mainly existence of amorphous state and co-existence of small fraction of microcrystalline(Fig.5d).When the non-solvent/solvent mixture system was changed to ethanol/chloroform,for an instance,the solid pow der collected from ethanol/chloroform in a 1:1 volume ratio contained mainly microcrystalline(Fig.5e).In this system,the aggregate formation process was slow and there was a long time for the molecules to form regular packing.The above results and analyses validate our above inferences.

Fig.5.X-ray diffraction patterns of the solid samples of as prepared TPP pow der sample(a),and spin-coating fi lm(b),as prepared solid pow der(c),aggregates formed in THF/w ater mixture with f w=70%(d)as well as the aggregates formed in 1:1 ethanol/chloroform mixture(e)for 4(TPE?COO)-TPP,respectively.

The amorphous state of 4(TPE?COO)-TPP was further confi rmed by the scanning electronic microscope(SEM)imagesshow n in Fig.S5A in Supporting information.The morphology of the asprepared pow ders of 4(TPE?COO)-TPPis mostly composed of fine pow ders mixing with some lamella-shaped objects.Carefully treating the aggregates formed in THF/w ater mixture with fwof 90%and SEM observationswere carried out.The morphology of the aggregates is characterized by feeble sheets in size of several tens micrometers in length and several nanometers in thickness(Fig.S5Bin Supporting information).These microstructurescannot afford enough information about 3-dimentional periodic structure.As a result,serial sharp diffraction peaks have not been recorded on the XRD pattern,and the blunt peak at 27.5?may be associated with the diffraction in direction of the sheet grow th.In contrast to 4(TPE?COO)-TPP,the SEM image of the as-prepared TPP pow der sample displays typical large sized and regularly-shaped blocks(Fig.S5C in Supporting information).The morphology of the aggregates formed in THF/w ater mixture with fwof 90%presents a pro fi le of micro-prisms(Fig.S5D in Supporting information).The degree of order of the microstructures observed in Fig.S5D is higher than that in Fig.S5B.These morphological observations are in good consistence with the respective XRD patterns and spectral features.

In summary,the experimental results indicate that the fluorescence ef fi ciency(F)of TPP can be greatly enhanced by modification the TPPcore with the representative AIE-gen of TPE.It is noted that the modification reaction takes place in mild condition and the overall yield is as high as 68.7%.The obtained 4(TPE?COO)-TPP emits red fluorescence with a maximum at 655 nm and an absolute F of 7.5%in amorphoussolid.Since TPPisa typical ACQluminogen with very lowemission ef fi ciency in crystal solid,thismodification isvery signi fi cant.Distinct from most of the TPE-modified ACQ luminogens,4(TPE?COO)-TPP demonstrates good red-emission in solution,aggregates and solids.Such a balanced emission in different states may help porphyrin derivatives to fi nd versatile applications in different situations.Considering that porphyrin is a family of luminescent materials that have draw n great research efforts,the information disclosed in the present work is useful for the development of novel and promising porphyrin-based opto/electronic materials.

Ack now led gm ents

This work was fi nancially supported by the Key Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(No.2013CB834704),the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51573158),the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong(Nos.16301614,N_HKUST604/14 and N_HKUST-620/11).Prof.Qin and Tang thank the support of Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program(No.201101C0105067115).

Appendix A.Supplem entary data

Supplementary data associated with thisarticle can be found,in the online version,at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cclet.2018.10.020.