SPE-196414-MS

The EOR Mechanism and Flow Behaviors of High-Viscosity Modified Starch

Nanogel Particles in Porous Media

Tuo Liang, Jirui Hou, Ming Qu, and Yuchen Wen, China University of Petroleum-Beijing; Wei Zhang and Wenming
Wu, Sinopec Northwest China oilfield company; Weipeng Wu, China University of Petroleum-Beijing; Ziyi Zhang,
Sinopec Northwest China oilfield company; Jingbin Yang, Lixiao Xiao, and Yitong Ding, China University of
Petroleum-Beijing

Copyright 2019, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Bali, Indonesia, 29-31 October 2019.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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Abstract
The formation of the dominant channel of water is a severe problem for most of the oilfields. Recently,
gel and nanoparticles regarded as conformance water materials have attracted more attention to control
water-cut and enhance oil recovery (EOR) in many water invasion reservoirs. However, nanogel particles
possessing synergic properties of nanoparticles and gel are currently unavailable, which causes barrier to
EOR. Here, high viscosity α-starch nanogel particles were synthesized to play the synergistic role of gel and
nanoparticles economically. The average diameter of nanogel particles was 30 nm with dispersion viscosity
of 250 mPa·s at 90°. Through flooding experiments, we demonstrated both light and heavy oil recovery
rates reached around 30%. The nanogel particles promotes to displace oil droplets from the rock surface due
the creation of the structural disjoining pressure. Also, its high viscosity properties help to drag oil clusters
out of the oil phase.
Key Words: Nano material, Nanogel particles, High viscosity nanofluid, Enhanced oil recovery,
Disjoining pressure

Introduction
In recent years, it is a serious contradiction between dramatically increasing oil demands and decreasing
oil production caused by the majority of mature oilfields entering a high water cut period.1–3 Recently,
new materials and technologies for controlling water conformance in the oilfields to prevent water from
production wells and increase oil production of remaining oil after water flooding were explored.4–6,38
Different kinds of materials have been employed to plug water channels and reduce high water cut to
enhance oil recovery rate. One of the methods, namely gel treatment has attracted a great of attention of
researchers to reduce water production as a feasible and economical technology.7 The gel treatment not only
improved the viscosity of displacement phase but also increased microscopic sweep efficiency by plugging
2 SPE-196414-MS

high permeable zones. Commonly, there are two kinds of gels including in-situ bulk gel and prepared
gel.8–11*
A mixture of crosslinker and polymer solution is injected into formation first, and then the gel is formed
at in-situ reservoir conditions to plug water channels. Oil production was achieved by utilizing in-situ gel
to control water conformance and increase sweep efficiency.12,13 However, several drawbacks restricted in-
situ bulk gel application in some harsh reservoirs, such as the lack of gel strength control, gelation time
control, adsorption water and chromatographic fractionation.1,10,14,15
Some researchers proposed the new type of gel synthesized before water injection to overcome the
disadvantages of in-situ bulk gel. This novel gel has better performance in complexed reservoir conditions
such as high temperature and salinity.4,10 Hence, many researchers were interested in synthesizing various
novel gels including preformed particle gels (PPGs), microgel particles and pH sensitive polymer microgels.
PPGs were a kind of superabsorbent crosslinking polymers of size micro to millimeter scale.4,16 Microgel
particles were studied due to its stability, elastic deformation and size-controlled. The size of microgel
particles was 1000 nm lesser than that of PPGs.17,18 The pH sensitive polymer microgel was synthesized
by altering pH as initiator. It had an excellent stability under the maximum pressure gradients of 4000 psi/
ft.19,20 The main differences of above gels were particle size, swelling ratio and gel strength.
However, these gels mentioned above were able to improve sweep efficiency but had limited effect
on improving sweep efficiency. Recently, nanomaterial technique as a new technology on further
effectively improving oil displacement has been broadly studied.21–23 There are many published papers
concentrated on interfacial tension changes, emulsion stabilization and foams from nanoparticles absorption
at interfaces.24–26 Moghadam and Azizian27 investigated the synergistic effect of ZnO nanoparticles
and cationic surfactant CTAB on the dynamic and equilibrium interfacial tension. The results showed
nanoparticles in the presence of CTAB decreased interfacial tension by synergistic effect while the
nanoparticles solely had no prominent contribution to the reduction of interfacial tension. The experiments
about interfacial tension on the effect of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles in the presence of cationic
surfactant were also conducted. The results illustrated silica nanoparticles increased interfacial tension.28
Ma et al.29 researched the influence of silica nanoparticles on the surface and interfacial tension in the
presence of anionic and non-ionic surfactants. Their results showed that interfacial tension decreased by the
addition of silica nanoparticles.29 The nanomaterials have an excellent potential to improve efficiency of oil
displacement but have limited effect on improving sweep efficiency. Till now, there is no work on utilizing
a material possessing both the properties of nanoparticles and gel simultaneously.
In order to combine the effect of gel and nanoparticles, nanogel particles are synthesized through free
radical reaction by α-starch, acrylamide, N,N’-methylene bisacrylamide and potassium persulfate in this
paper for the first time. The complexed visualized porous models were utilized to reveal EOR mechanisms
and flow behaviors of nanogel particles in heterogeneous porous media under different drive conditions.

Methods
Synthesis of Nanogel Particles
Nanogel particles used in this study were synthesized by a free radical reaction using α-starch, acrylamide,
N,N’-methylene bisacrylamide (crosslinking agent), potassium persulfate (initiator). The water used for
nanogel particles synthesis was deionized (DI) water. The schematic of synthesis of nanogel particles was
shown in Figure 1(a). The organic cross-linking reactions of the in-situ α-starch gel systems are related to
the hydroxyl groups (-CH2OH). Briefly, the aqueous solution containing 3 wt% α-starch, 3 wt% acrylamide,
0.15 wt% N,N’-methylene bisacrylamide, 0.2 wt% potassium persulfate was static for 30 minutes at 50° to
gel. Afterwards, the nanogel particles dispersion was obtained by stirring the gel at 2000 rpm for 1 minute.
As seen (Figure 1(b)), nanogel particles have a smooth surface and are evenly distribued. Moreover, the
size of nanogel particles is 30 nm.
SPE-196414-MS 3

Figure 1—schematic of synthesis of nanogel particles (a), SEM image of nanogel particles (b).

Chemicals Used
The oil for 2-D visualized model experiments was a mixture of aqueous kerosene and paraffine with volume
ration of 1:20. The viscosity was 23.9 mPa·s at 25°C measured by HAAKE RS600 rheometer. The Sudan
III was added into the mixture oil for enhancing visual effect, turning the color of model oil into red.
The oil for core flooding experiments was provided by Daqing oilfield. The viscosity was 25 mPa·s and
100 mPa·s at 25°C measured by HAAKE RS600 rheometer respectively.
Daqing oilfield synthetic brine (Table 1) was employed to conduct 2-D visualized model and core
flooding experiments. Additionally, brine was dyed blue in 2-D visualized experiments for better visual
effect by adding 0.05 mg·L-1of methylene blue.

Table 1—Ion Compositions of Simulated Formation Water

Concentration of ions/(mg·L-1) Total salinity

Ca2+ Mg 2+ K +Na
+ + Cl- /(mg·L-1)

15 7 2428 198 2160 2267 54 7129

Viscosity Measuring
The viscosity of nanogel particles at different concentrations (0.5 wt% and 1.5 wt%) versus different
temperatures ranging from 25° to 90° was measured by the HAAKE RS600 rheometer (Thermo Electron
Co., Germany).

Cores for Flooding Experiments

Reservoir sandstones of Daqing oilfield were used for flooding experiments varying with various
permeability ranging from 25 mD to 2500 mD. Additionally, the cores were cylindrical with diameter of 25
mm and length of 100 mm. The processes of core flooding experiments were as follows:
① Cylindrical core was placed into a core holder. And then after confining pressure was added to the core,
the air was removed from fixed core by vacuum pump.
② Core without air was saturated with simulated formation water by constant flow pump at 1 ml/min. The
volume of saturated water was recorded as Vwi representing the volume of pore space (Vp).
③ Crude oil was injected to displace simulated formation water at 0.2 ml/min by constant flow pump. The
volume of displaced water was recorded as Voi to calculate initial oil saturation (Soi) by the equation (1).
Additionally, the prepared core was aging for 3 days to simulate the formation of actual reservoirs.

(1)
4 SPE-196414-MS

④ Water flooding was performed at 0.2 ml/min until the water cut reached 98%. And then oil production
(Vow) and oil recovery rate (Row) were calculated by the equation (2). After that the nanogel particles
dispersion was injected at the same velocity of 0.2 ml/min. The secondary oil production (Vop) and oil
recovery rate (Rop) were calculated by the equation (3).
⑤ The above steps were repeated when other parameters were carried out.

(2)

(3)

2-D Visualized Models

The 2-D visualized models were designed and fabricated based on the scanning electron microscope (SEM)
of core tablets. It was difficult to describe all characteristics of totally different pores and throats of natural
core tablets (Figures 2(a) and 3(a)) deriving from Daqing oilfield. Thus, the 2-D visualized models’ brief
diagrams were designed based on SEM images (Figures 2(b) and 3(b)). The size of 2-D visualized models
used in these experiments is 50×30×0.5 mm (Figure 2(c) and 3(c)). For better visual effect, the 2-D
visualized models were made of oil-wet transparent polymethyl methacrylate. And then Laser Numerical
Control Lathe was utilized to engrave the inner pores and throats. Finally, the 2-D visualized models with
permeability of 25 mD and 2500 mD were obtained to conduct EOR mechanisms and flow behaviors
experiments of nanogel particles in porous media.

Figure 2—Making procedure of 2-D visualized model with permeability of 25 mD. (a)-(c) represented natural core tablet,
SEM of core tablet and brief diagram of SEM,2-D visualized model deriving from brief diagram of SEM, respectively.

Figure 3—Making procedure of 2-D visualized model with permeability of 2500 mD. (a)-(c) represented natural core tablet,
SEM of core tablet and brief diagram of SEM,2-D visualized model deriving from brief diagram of SEM, respectively.
SPE-196414-MS 5

Results and discussions

Properties of Nanogel Particles Dispersion
Diameter of nanogel particles. SEM pictures of nanogel particles were obtained in order to assess the
diameter of nanogel particles. As shown in Figure 1(c), the average diameter of nanogel particles was about
30 nm, which is much smaller than that of conventional preformed gel particles.30–32 Moreover, the nanogel
particles were uniformly distributed in a solution, emerging excellent stability.
Viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion. The viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion as a function of
temperature and the concentration was shown in Figure 4 (points).

Figure 4—Fitted (curves) and measured (points) viscosity of nanogel particles

dispersion versus temperature and concentration of nanogel particles.

In terms of temperature, the viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion decreased gradually with increasing
system temperature for both 1.5 wt% and 0.5 wt% concentrations of nanogel particles. Particularly, it
was noted there was a kind of liner relationship between temperature and viscosity. The different linear
relationships were fitted and exhibited (as shown in Table 2).

Table 2—The Linear Relationships between Viscosity and Temperature of

Nanogel Particles Dispersion under Different Concentration of Nanogel Particles

Concentration of Linear relationship Adj. R-Square

nanogel particles (wt%)

0.5 η=-0.29403×T+29.24278 0.92378

1.5 η=-4.65133×T+650.50533 0.98728

Where η was the viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion (mPa·s); T was ambient temperature (°C).
The correlations were trustworthy according to the value of Adj. R-Square representing the degree of
fitting.
Moreover, the viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion increased dramatically with increasing the
concentration of nanogel particles and the viscosity was much higher than that of B-PPG.31 The high
6 SPE-196414-MS

viscosity of dispersion for 1.5 wt% nanogel particles was attributed to stronger intermolecular entanglement
and the formation of three-dimension complexed network structures.31
Based on detailly analyzing the relationships among viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion,
temperature and concentration of nanogel particles, a comprehensive correlation (equation (4)) utilized to
describe all experiments data was obtained. The fitted curves were drawn in Figure 4. As seen, the fitted
value was consistent with experiments data.
(4)
where α was the concentration of nanogel particles (mg/L); A, B, C, D were the correlation coefficient and
the value were shown in Table 3.

Table 3—The Value of Correlation Coefficient in the Equation (4)

Correlation coefficient A B C D

value -4.3573 621.26 1.8846 -281.39

Core Flooding Experiments

The core flooding experiments were conducted to select the best effect of oil recovery rate under different
experiment conditions (as shown in Table 4). The temperature of 25° was fixed contact for all experiments.

Table 4—The Experiment Conditions of Core Flooding Experiments

Core No. Permeability (mD) Porosity (%) Average Oil viscosity (mPa·s) Concentration
pore throat of nanogel
diameter (μm) particles (wt%)

1 25 0.22 1.91 25 1.5

2 25 0.20 2.00 25 0.5

3 25 0.21 1.95 100 1.5

4 25 0.23 1.87 100 0.5

5 2500 0.23 18.65 25 1.5

6 2500 0.21 19.52 25 0.5

7 2500 0.24 18.26 100 1.5

8 2500 0.23 18.65 100 0.5

The equation (5) was introduced to calculate the average diameter of pores and throats while the value
of τ was 2.

(5)

where r was the average diameter of pores and throats, μm; k was the permeability of cores, μm2; τ was
the tortuosity; φ was the porosity of cores.
The experiment results of core flooding were shown in Figure 5. As seen in Figure 5(a) and 5(b), the value
of oil recovery rate after 0.5 wt% nanogel particles dispersion flooding was almost same, although the other
experiment conditions such as permeability and oil viscosity were different. In comparison with the 0.5 wt
% nanogel particles dispersion, the 1.5 wt% nanogel particles dispersion had a significant incremental oil
recovery after nanogel particles dispersion flooding. Figure 5(c) showed oil recovery rates for 25 mD and
2500 mD were 15.27% and 29.68% respectively with the oil viscosity of 25 mPa·s. Figure 5(d) indicated
SPE-196414-MS 7

oil recovery rates for 25mD and 2500mD were 13.94% and 32.28% respectively with the oil viscosity of
100 mPa·s. Compared with 25mD, the nanogel particles had a potential application in 2500mD of cores.

Figure 5—Oil recovery rate of core flooding experiments versus experiment conditions. (a) 25
mPa·s oil and 0.5 wt% nanogel particles; (b) 100 mPa·s oil and 0.5 wt% nanogel particles; (c)
25 mPa·s oil and 1.5 wt% nanogel particles; (d) 100mPa·s oil and 1.5 wt% nanogel particles.

Flow Behaviors of Nanogel Particles

In order to analyze the flow behaviors of nanogel particles, the 2-D visualized model experiments were
carried out to observe and analyze the characteristics of nanogel particles in porous media. The several
parameters including permeability, concentration of nanogel particles, injection direction and injection rate
were studied in depth.
Effect of permeability. As seen in Figure 6, the distribution of remaining oil was totally different in
two models after nanogel particles flooding. The concentration of nanogel particles was 1.5 wt% and the
injection rate was 5 μL/min. Figure 6(a) showed the types of remaining oil were classified into blind end
oil and oil between throats while Figure 6(b) suggested the type of remaining oil was oil film after nanogel
particles flooding. Moreover, compared to 2500 mD model, more remaining oil was trapped in pores and
throats in 25 mD model. This experiment results were consistent with core flooding results (as shown in
Figure 5).
8 SPE-196414-MS

Figure 6—(a) represented the remaining oil distribution in 25 mD

model; (b) represented the remaining oil distribution in 2500 mD model.

The phenomenon was attributed to the different structures and size of pores and throats in different
permeability models. As seen in Figure 6(a), the tortuosity and coordination number of pore throat in 25 mD
were higher than that in 2500 mD, causing more blind end holes trapping more remaining oil. Moreover,
the equation (5) implied the smaller diameter of pores and throats existed in 25 mD. Thus, the capillary
force calculated according to the equation (6) in 25 mD was stronger than that in 2500 mD, leading to more
remaining oil trapped in smaller throats. On the contrary, the majority of pores and throats could be swept
by the nanogel particles in 2500 mD, causing few remaining oil left (Figure 6(b)). As a result, the greater
oil recovery rate was obtained at the permeability of 2500 mD core.
Effect of concentration of nanogel particles. The quantity of remaining oil was different distinctly in
Figure 7(a) and (b). The injection rate was 5 μL/min. As seen, more remaining oil existed in the porous
media after 0.5 wt% nanogel particles flooding comparing that after 1.5 wt% nanogel particles flooding. It
was worth noting more remaining oil was distributed in the top of the model, which was attributed to the
formation of water channel after water flooding. Thus, the nanogel particles had priority access to the water
channel due to the smaller percolation resistance. For this reason, one of the objectives of nanogel particles
was to increase percolation resistance and enhance sweep efficiency by plugging water channels.12,32,33

Figure 7—(a) Distribution of remaining oil after 1.5 wt% nanogel particles
flooding; (b) Distribution of remaining oil after 0.5 wt% nanogel particles flooding.
SPE-196414-MS 9

However, the viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion with the concentration of 0.5 wt% can be negligible
(as shown in Figure 4) comparing to 1.5 wt% nanogel particles dispersion. As seen in Figure 7(a), the more
nanogel particles preferred to flow through the water channels, causing a plugging wall and the increasing
of percolation resistance. Thus, the nanogel particles were compelled to the micron-nano scale pore throat,
which increased the sweep efficiency and oil recovery rate. In term of 0.5 wt% nanogel particles dispersion,
the effect of plugging was not formed successfully due to the fewer nanogel particles. Thus, the oil in small
pores and throats was not able to be displaced effectively in Figure 7(b). In addition, the higher viscosity of
nanogel particles dispersion with 1.5 wt% nanogel particles was also attributed to stronger intermolecular
association among more nanogel particles which formed three-dimensional network structures.34
Effect of injection direction. Figure 8 demonstrated the distribution of remaining oil was opposite in porous
media when the injection direction was reversed with the injection rate of 5 μL/min at the concentration of
1.5 wt%. As seen in Figure 8(a), a large amount of remaining oil was trapped near the outlet. Meanwhile,
the majority of remaining oil also existed in the vicinity of the outlet (as shown in Figure 8(b)) while the
injection direction was opposite.

Figure 8—(a) Distribution of remaining oil at the injection direction from left to right; (b) Distribution
of remaining oil at the injection direction from right to left; (c) Force analysis of curve interface.

The above experiment results were attributed to the structures of pores and throats in porous media. In
term the injection direction as Figure 8(a), the width of pores and throats decreased gradually near the inlet
as drawn in Figure 8(c). As seen, there were two different meniscuses with different radius of curvature (R1
and R2) on both sides of oil phase in throat. According to Laplace equation as shown in equation (6), the
capillary force was calculated recorded as F1 and F2.
(6)
Where F was capillary force, Pa; R was radius of curvature of meniscus, m; σ was the interfacial tension,
N/m; θ was the contact angle.
Obviously, F1 was more than F2 due to R1<R2, representing the direction of net force of capillary force
pointing to right consistent with displacement direction. Thus, the capillary force was beneficial to displace
oil near the inlet. On the contrary, the characteristics of throat near the outlet were opposite, leading to the
net force of capillary force pointing to left inconsistent with displacement direction (as shown in Figure
8(c)). Therefore, the capillary force was resistance to oil displacement, causing the remaining oil left near
the outlet mainly.
However, the direction of all net force of capillary force was opposite when the injection direction was
opposite. In other words, the capillary force played an opposite role at the same position in porous media.
Thus, the distribution of remaining oil was also in the vicinity of outlet (as shown in Figure 8(b)).
10 SPE-196414-MS

Effect of injection rate. Figure 9 implied the amount of remaining oil decreased with increasing the
injection rate. The concentration of nanogel particles was 1.5 wt%. Three types of remaining oil containing
oil film, blind end oil and oil between pores and throats can be seen in Figure 9(a). Figure 9(c) showed the
majority of oil film and oil trapped between pores and throats disappeared at the injection rate of 20 μL/min.
There was almost little oil in porous media when the injection rate was 50 μL/min in Figure 9(e). However,
there were few literatures reported on the mechanisms of injection rate to oil displacement efficiency.

Figure 9—(a) Distribution of remaining oil at the injection rate of 5 μL/min (V1); (c) Distribution of remaining
oil at the injection rate of 20 μL/min (V2); (e) Distribution of remaining oil at the injection rate of 50 μL/
min (V3); (b, d and f) represented the mechanism of various injection rates on initiating oil, respectively.

As known, the oil was trapped in porous media due to intermolecular force between oil molecules, oil
molecules and the solid particles, which prevented the movement of oil molecules from the solid. But once
oil molecules enhanced its energy to neutralize the binding force, they were displaced easily. Based on
that, the momentum conservation laws were introduced to explain the mechanism of oil displacement on
the influence of injection rate. The collision between nanogel particles and oil droplets was considered as
perfect elastic collision and the equation (7) was utilized to describe momentum conservation law briefly.
(7)
Where F was the contact force, N; t was the contact time, s; M was the quality of nanogel particle; V′
was the velocity of nanogel particle after contacting; m was the quality of oil droplet; v′ was the velocity
of oil droplet after contacting; V was the velocity of nanogel particle before contacting; v was the velocity
of oil droplet before contacting regarded as 0.
F was beneficial to promote oil droplets getting rid of the constraint of intermolecular force. Equation (7)
demonstrated F was proportional to velocity of V. Thus, the value of F would be increased with increasing
injection rate of nanogel particles. The larger the value of F, the more replaced oil droplets. Finally, there
was lesser remaining oil in porous media as the injection rate increased (as shown in Figure 9(b), (d) and (f)).

EOR Mechanisms of Nanogel Particles

Figure 10 revealed the EOR mechanism of nanogel particles based on immersing experiment and 2-D
visualized experiments. The immersing experiment was one oil droplet adhered to solid immersing in 1.5
SPE-196414-MS 11

wt% nanogel particles dispersion recorded by contact angle measuring instrument. The 2-D visualized
experiments included the effect of permeability, concentration of nanogel particles, injection direction and
injection rate on the flow behaviors of nanogel particles in porous media.

Figure 10—EOR Mechanisms of nanogel particles. (a) characteristics of oil drop immersing
in nanogel particles dispersion versus time; (b) process of wedge film enhancing the
spreading of nanogel particles on solid; (c) dynamic EOR mechanism of nanogel particles.
12 SPE-196414-MS

Figure 10(a) showed the characteristics of oil drop immersing in static nanogel particles dispersion versus
time. The oil droplet was placed after the nanogel partilcles dispersion was filled. It was worth noting the
oil droplet was gradually moving away from the solid at both ends of the three-phase contact zone. The
result was attributed to the nanogel particles spreading along the solid surface. Interestingly, the oil droplet
was completely detached from the solid after 89 seconds. Figure 1(c) demonstrated the diameter of nanogel
particles was 30 nm, causing spreading behaviors along the solid. Thus, the phenomenon (as shown in Figure
10(a)) was attributed to the osmotic pressure which caused the wedge film along its interface among the
solid, nanogel particles dispersion and oil droplets.35,36 The structure of nanogel particles within wedge film
could enhance the spreading of nanogel particles on solid. It meant the wedge film induced an additional
pressure force called structural disjoining pressure at its interface to remove the oil droplets from solid
into displacement phase. Evenly, the structural disjoining pressure increased as the spreading of nanogel
particles further (as shown in Figure 10(b)).37
We also concluded some other oil displacement mechanisms of nanogel particles from dynamic
experiments (as shown in Figure 10 (c)). Firstly, the viscosity of 1.5 wt% nanogel particles dispersion was
250 mPa·s of oil viscosity at 90° attributed to the stronger intermolecular force among nanogel particles,
causing higher ability of mobility control. Secondly, the more energy was transferred to the oil droplets
from nanogel particles by collision according to the momentum conservation laws. Then the oil droplets
move away from the solid by overcoming the adhesion force.

Conclusions
The high viscosity nanogel particles with diameter of 30 nm were synthesized to combine the effects of gel
and nanoparticles. The high viscosity of nanogel particles dispersion with 250 mPa·s at 90° was utilized
to plug water channels and drag oil droplets out of remaining oil. Meanwhile, the osmotic pressure was
created at the interface among the sandstone surface, nanogel particles dispersion and oil droplet, generating
structural disjoining pressure to make the oil droplet out of sandstone surface. Through core flooding
experiments, we recovered around 30% of remaining oil with 1.5 wt% nanogel particles dispersion after
water flooding.

Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21427812,
21776308 and 21576289), National "111 Project" (B13010), and Important National Science and
Technology Specific Projects of China (Grant No. 2016ZX05014-004-004).

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