Water-oil interfacial kinetics control enables water-based organic solar cells with 12.59% certified efficiency
Abstract
Organic solar cells (OSCs) are promising for clean-energy generation, but sustainable production remains constrained by hazardous organic solvents. Aqueous organic-semiconductor nanoparticle (NP) inks offer an environmentally friendly route to OSCs, yet low efficiency and limited stability hinder practical application. Here we report an interfacial-tension-mediated strategy that regulates NP structure and film formation. By tuning the liquid-liquid interfacial tension during NP synthesis, this strategy balances donor/acceptor segregation at the water/oil interface and converts a donor-dominated, highly ordered shell into a mixed polycrystalline surface region. The reconfigured surface promotes particle fusion, phase connectivity and packing uniformity, enhancing charge generation and transport while suppressing recombination. The resulting water-based OSCs achieve 12.64% efficiency (certified, 12.59%), surpassing the previous 11.1% benchmark for water-based OSCs, alongside a remarkable improvement in thermal stability and a T80 exceeding 2000 h at 85 °C. Interfacial-tension regulation thus provides a practical handle for NP structure control towards efficient, durable and sustainable printed photovoltaics.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the staff members of the Small Angle Neutron Scattering ( https://cstr.cn/31113.02.CSNS.SANS) at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) ( https://cstr.cn/31113.02.CSNS), for providing technical support and assistance in data collection and analysis. X-ray data were acquired at beamlines 7.3.3 and 11.0.1.2 at the Advanced Light Source, which was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The authors thank Dr. Eric Schaible and Dr. Chenhui Zhu at beamline 7.3.3 and Dr. Cheng Wang at beamline 11.0.1.2 for assistance with data acquisition.
Funding
W.M. acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (W2411049), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFA1208204). Z.B. thanks the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52303247), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (xzy012023169), the Postdoctoral Research Project of Shaanxi Province (2023BSHEDZZ24).
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Author notes
- These authors contributed equally: Zhaozhao Bi, Ke Wang.
Authors and Affiliations
- State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Zhaozhao Bi, Ke Wang, Chang Liu, Linlin An, Hairui Bai, Tengfei Li, Chao Zhao, Qunping Fan & Wei Ma
- Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong, China
Heng Liu & Xinhui Lu
- Longzihu New Energy Laboratory, Zhengzhou, China
Yabing Tang & Guilong Cai
- Spallation Neutron Source Science Center, Dongguan, China
Hua Yang, Hanqiu Jiang & Yubin Ke
- Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Hua Yang, Hanqiu Jiang & Yubin Ke
- School of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, P. R. China
Jiawei Qiao & Xiaotao Hao
- The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Rui Sun & Jie Min
- Center of Ionic Liquids and Green Energy, Beijing Key Laboratory of Solid State Battery and Energy Storage Process, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Guilong Cai
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China
Xiaowei Zhan
Corresponding author
Correspondence to Wei Ma.
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Cite this article
Bi, Z., Wang, K., Liu, C. et al. Water-oil interfacial kinetics control enables water-based organic solar cells with 12.59% certified efficiency. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78233-1
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Received: 07 June 2026
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Accepted: 17 September 2026
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Published: 06 October 2026
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