Electrodeposition, solvent engineering, and two-step solution deposition of the perovskite films: morphological and structural study

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells are still soaring in the science and technology world. For reaching efficient solar cells, the deposition method of perovskite highly matters. It severely affects the morphological structure and grain/crystal size of the deposited film which are very crucial factors. In this work, the solvent engineering, two-step solution deposition, and electrodeposition methods have been compared and studied morphologically. While substrate plays an important role in the quality of the deposited film, experiments have been carried out on both planar and mesopore $$\text {TiO}_2$$ substrates. An image processing tool has been designed for quantitative surface analysis of the perovskite layers. The obtained results showed that the electrodeposition synthesis method on the mesopore substrate leads to an average of 99% surface coverage and the largest grain sizes (340.4 nm). It was demonstrated that the electrodeposited perovskite films had an average crystallite size of 39.11 nm which is slightly better than the other two methods. However, the solvent engineering method resulted in the most uniformity in grain sizes (standard deviation of 31.9 nm) for planar and (34.7 nm) for mesopore $$\text {TiO}_2$$ substrates. According to the presented results, the electrodeposition seems to be the method of choice for perovskite deposition for solar applications.