Hydrogen‐Bonding Networks Enabled by Trace Water for Morphological Design in Ternary Organic Solar Cells

Morphology evolution is critical to the performance of functional materials, but strategies for its control remain largely empirical. Here, we identify a counterintuitive role of water (H<sub>2</sub>O) as a morphology-regulating agent in ternary organic solar cells (OSCs), traditionally considered an impurity. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the dual hydrogen-bonding capacity of H<sub>2</sub>O drives the formation of dynamic hydrogen-bonding networks (HBNs). Continuous HBNs facilitate the migration of the third component into donor-enriched domains through encapsulation, thereby stabilizing alloy-like morphologies. While this HBN-driven transition fails in single-donor solvent systems such as ethanol, it extends to both fullerene and non-fullerene blends in multi-donor or acceptor environments. To render the mechanism applicable in organic processing, we adopted a co-solvent strategy and identified a critical regime at a water-to-chloroform volume ratio of 0.06:1. At this threshold, trace H<sub>2</sub>O reproduces the alloy-like behavior in neat H<sub>2</sub>O without compromising solubility, providing practical utility for device processing. Analyses of H<sub>2</sub>O containing CB, DMSO, and THF co-solvents further confirm the general applicability of the HBN mechanism across distinct solvent environments. This work redefines H<sub>2</sub>O as a functional additive, establishes HBN engineering as a general framework for morphology control, and suggests broader implications for functional materials governed by weak interactions.

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Journal
Advanced Science
Published
2026-01-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202517146
Primary Topic
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Hydrogen‐Bonding Networks Enabled by Trace Water for Morphological Design in Ternary Organic Solar Cells

Yun Geng, Ming‐Yue Sui, Guang‐Yan Sun, Rui‐Cheng Qin et al.
Advanced Science
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
article

Hydrogen‐Bonding Networks Enabled by Trace Water for Morphological Design in Ternary Organic Solar Cells

Yun Geng, Ming‐Yue Sui, Guang‐Yan Sun, Rui‐Cheng Qin, Yue Ren, Xin Xu, Ming‐Yang Li
article en

Abstract

Morphology evolution is critical to the performance of functional materials, but strategies for its control remain largely empirical. Here, we identify a counterintuitive role of water (H<sub>2</sub>O) as a morphology-regulating agent in ternary organic solar cells (OSCs), traditionally considered an impurity. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the dual hydrogen-bonding capacity of H<sub>2</sub>O drives the formation of dynamic hydrogen-bonding networks (HBNs). Continuous HBNs facilitate the migration of the third component into donor-enriched domains through encapsulation, thereby stabilizing alloy-like morphologies. While this HBN-driven transition fails in single-donor solvent systems such as ethanol, it extends to both fullerene and non-fullerene blends in multi-donor or acceptor environments. To render the mechanism applicable in organic processing, we adopted a co-solvent strategy and identified a critical regime at a water-to-chloroform volume ratio of 0.06:1. At this threshold, trace H<sub>2</sub>O reproduces the alloy-like behavior in neat H<sub>2</sub>O without compromising solubility, providing practical utility for device processing. Analyses of H<sub>2</sub>O containing CB, DMSO, and THF co-solvents further confirm the general applicability of the HBN mechanism across distinct solvent environments. This work redefines H<sub>2</sub>O as a functional additive, establishes HBN engineering as a general framework for morphology control, and suggests broader implications for functional materials governed by weak interactions.

Advanced ScienceVol. 13(14)
Yanbian University of Science and Technology (CN), Northeast Normal University (CN), Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Scholarship Council, Yanbian University
Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 98%
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics
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