ABSTRACT

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials have attracted significant research efforts because of their outstanding properties. Meanwhile the crystallization of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials can significantly influence the films quality. Here, we research the influence of the characteristics of PbI₂ thin film on final perovskite films and the mechanisms of film formation based on the two-step sequential deposition method. We found that the characteristics of PbI₂ thin film, such as the grain size, the grain shape, the surface roughness and the film densification, have significant effects on the final perovskite films due to different film crystallization process. According to the analysis on the characteristics of the perovskite films obtained from different PbI₂ precursor, we suggested that the formation of perovskite film begins from the PbI₂ crystals expanding when they are converted to MAPbI₃ perovskite by migration of MA+ cations from the grain boundaries.

Keywords:

Perovskite, Film Formation, Grain Characteristics

1. Introduction

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials have attracted substantial attention because of their excellent physical properties [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] , which enable them to be employed in solar cells and other application, such as LED. These materials show remarkable optical absorptions across a wide range of the solar spectrum, and a sharp optical band edge, which suggests low levels of disorder [6] [7] . They also exhibit long charge-carrier diffusion lengths (>1 mm) relative to the absorption depth of incident light (~100 nm), [8] [9] meaning that almost all photoexcited species in the perovskite are able to reach the interfaces from where the charges are then transported through suitable hole- and electron-transporting layers to the electrodes. Based on these excellent properties, the power conversion efficiencies of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have increased from around 4% to a certified 22% in the last three years [1] [2] [3] . Now, most of the significant improvements in PCE have been a direct result of improvements in the formation of perovskite films, [10] [11] which led to a better film uniformity and crystalline quality, thus suggesting that the thin film features are of the upmost importance for achieving high performance.

As we know, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites are a family of materials that share a crystal structure with calcium titanate, that is, ABX₃. These material are crystallized from organic halide and metal halide salts to form crystals in the ABX₃ structure, where A is the organic cation, such as methylammonium (MA = ${\text{CH}}_3{\text{NH}}_3^{+}$ ), B is the metal cation, such as lead (B = Pb²⁺) and X is the halide anion (X = I, Br, Cl or mixtures). As for this, there is a general schematic diagram of perovskite synthesis (Figure 1). And a lot of processing techniques of perovskite layers have been reported to obtain high-quality perovskite films so far, such as one-/two-step solution process, vacuum deposition, and solvent vapor/additive assisted crystal growth [12] - [18] . Although these methods give some help to understand the growth mechanisms of perovskite films, however the growth mechanisms of perovskite films are not completely clear. The two-step sequential deposition method in all method for film formation is more helpful for studying the growth mechanisms of perovskite crystallites.

We have found that the characteristics of PbI₂ layer play a significant role in the final perovskite films formation. In this paper, we research the influence of PbI₂ film characteristics on the final perovskite films and its mechanisms based on the two-step sequential deposition method.

2. Experimental Section

Many methods to fabricate organic-inorganic perovskites have emerged, each resulting in varying degrees of surface coverage [19] , and crystal and film quality [20] . Nevertheless, the two-step sequential deposition method can achieve

additional control over the morphology by sequentially depositing the two precursors relative to one-step deposition [21] . Meanwhile the two-step sequential deposition method is more flexible to design the procession of film formation. Here, organic-inorganic perovskite films were fabricated by two-step sequential deposition methods, which is helpful to investigate the effect of PbI₂ layer characteristics on the perovskite films formation.

2.1. Organic-Inorganic Perovskite Thin Films Deposition

2.1.1. PbI₂ Layer Fabricated by Spin Coatings

Here, the inorganic framework film was formed by depositing PbI₂ solution on the substrates. PbI₂ solution was prepared in DMF. The prepared PbI₂ solution was preheated at 110˚C on a hot plate, followed by spin coating on the substrates at 4000 rpm for 40 s, then the PbI₂ film was put back on the hot plate for 15 min of drying. To obtain the perovskite thin film, substrates with PbI₂ film were then put into a vacuum coating machine, then MAI was deposited by thermal evaporation for 30 min (Figure 2). After cooling down to room temperature, these perovskite thin films were annealed for 18 min at 100˚C. Then the films were rinsed with 2-propanol, and dried under a flow of clean air.

2.1.2. PbI₂ Layer Fabricated by Thermal Evaporation

This method to convert PbI₂ to a perovskite is aside from conversions in solution, where the substrate is exposed to the PbI₂ vapor. Then substrates with PbI₂ film were then put into a vacuum coating machine, then MAI was deposited by thermal evaporation for 30 min, sequentially (Figure 3). After cooling down to

room temperature, the perovskite films were annealed for 30 min at 100˚C. Then the films are rinsed with 2-propanol, and dried under a flow of clean air.

2.2. Analysis of Characteristics of the Resulted Layers

The crystal structures of the CH₃NH₃PbI₃ films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD, Philips PANalytical X’Pert Pro) with a copper X-ray source, and the surface morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM, Hitachi SU8010) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Seiko SPA-400SPM UNIT). All samples were tested in air and at room temperature.

3. Results and Discussions

To investigated the characteristics of PbI₂ layer prepared by different processes. We prepared different PbI₂ layers by spin coating and thermal evaporation, respectively.

3.1. The Characteristics of PbI₂ Layer Prepared by Different Processes

As our previous work described [22] , SEM and XRD measurements of PbI₂ layers fabricated by spin coating with different solution concentrations were taken. In Figures 4(f)-(j), an obvious signature peak at 12.65˚ is observed in all PbI₂ layers, which indicate doubtless PbI₂ material. Figures 4(a)-(e) show the top-view SEM images of PbI₂ films with the different solution concentration. It is observed that the PbI₂ layer has no clear morphology and fuzzy domain boundaries with low PbI₂ solution concentration (Figure 4(a)). With the increase of PbI₂ solution concentration, the morphology of PbI₂ layer becomes

gradually clear (Figures 4(a)-(e)) with pancake-shape crystalline grain, the grain size gradually increases as shown in Figures 4(a)-(e). Meanwhile, the surface roughness also gradually increases as extracted from its AFM measurements (see Table 1), which is consistent with SEM measurements (Figures 4(f)-(j)). We found the PbI₂ grains prepared by spin coating have fuzzy domain boundaries.

Then, the characteristics of PbI₂ layer fabricated by thermal evaporation with different amount of PbI₂ were researched via the SEM images and XRD measurements in Figure 5. However, we found the PbI₂ layers by thermal evaporation appeared a completely different morphology from that by spin coating. As shown in Figure 5, all the PbI₂ layers obtained by thermal evaporation have clear surface morphology and appear rice-shaped crystalline grain. With the increase of the amount of PbI₂, the surface roughness and the grain size of PbI₂ layers gradually increases. On the other hand, the sharp signature peak at 12.65˚ in the XRD measurements implies well crystalline degree of all PbI₂ layers obtained via thermal evaporation (Table 2).

The SEM images and XRD measurements of twos representative PbI₂ layers prepared by spin coating and thermal evaporation are compared as shown in Figure 6. As can be seen, there has an obvious difference between the morphology of the two types of PbI₂ layers. The later has a clear crystal shape and a loose structure comparing with that of the former. However the former have fuzzy domain boundaries and fewer grain boundaries than the later. From the XRD measurements in Figure 6(c), the sharpness of XRD peak of the PbI₂ layers

fabricated by two methods has a significant difference, where the peaks corresponding to PbI₂ obtained by thermal evaporation process is very sharp than that by spin-coating process, illustrating the higher crystalline degree of the PbI₂ obtained by thermal evaporation process.

3.2. The Influence of PbI₂ Characteristics on Final Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Films

To investigate the influence of characteristics of PbI₂ film on final perovskite films, we fabricated perovskite films with different PbI₂ precursor. Figure 7 shows the SEM images of perovskite films made from the PbI₂ precursor fabricated by spin coating with different solution concentrations above discussion, with the increase of PbI₂ solution concentration, the film surface roughness gradually increases, which benefit PbI₂ to contact MAI and convert completely to perovskite. Then the final perovskite films were obtained without PbI₂ residue, as illustrated in Figure 7(i), Figure 7(j), where the PbI₂ solution concentration is higher than 345 mg/ml. As to the PbI₂ solution concentration below 250 mg/ml, the perovskite films did not have PbI₂ residue, which were mainly due to lower PbI₂ solution concentration (see Figure 7(f), Figure 7(g)). Nevertheless, the grain sizes of perovskite films obtained with different PbI₂ solution concentration are almost same (Figures 7(a)-(e)). Additionally, the surface of PbI₂ layer would become rough (see Figure 4(e) and Table 1) when the PbI₂ solution

concentration is too high, finally leading to a rough and irregular surface of perovskite film when PbI₂ layer converts to perovskite films (see Figure 7(e)). Therefore, we suggest that the characteristics of PbI₂ layers fabricated by spin coating have a main influence on the roughness of perovskite film rather than the grain size.

Figure 8 shows the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of perovskite films made from the PbI₂ precursor by thermal evaporation with different amount of PbI₂. Comparing with the PbI₂ film fabricated by spin coating, the PbI₂ films fabricated by thermal evaporation have loose morphologies as shown above, which make it easier for the MAI to diffuse into PbI₂ films and makes complete reaction between the MAI and PbI₂. Therefore, PbI₂ residue in the final films is fewer than that made from the spin coating PbI₂ precursor as shown in Figure 8(e). However when the amount of PbI₂ reaches to 150 mg, an obvious signature peak at 12.65˚ appears, which suggests that the amount of PbI₂ was too much to react completely and there is some PbI₂ residue in the final perovskite films. Different with the case of spin coating PbI₂ precursor, the characteristics of PbI₂ film have an effect on both the grain size and the film surface roughness final perovskite films.

Base on the above analysis, we found the final perovskite films are very dependent on the characteristics of PbI₂ precursor with respect to the morphology, the grain size and crystalline degree. Because the PbI₂ prepared by spin coating

has less grain boundary than that prepared by thermal evaporation, the final perovskite films obtained by thermal evaporation (Figure 8) have smaller grain size than that obtained by spin coating (Figure 7). As we know, the perovskite formation process is the combination of an organic component, such as methylammonium iodide (MAI), with an inorganic component, such as PbI₂ or PbCl₂, to form the perovskite (MAPbI₃ or MAPbI_3-xCl_x, respectively). We suggested that the formation of perovskite in two-step method is the PbI₂ as nucleus reacts with MAI, in the meantime, the PbI₂ crystals start to expand to convert to MAPbI₃ crystals by migration of MA+ cations from the grain boundaries. Then the PbI₂ deposited via thermal evaporation has high grain density as the nucleus which grows into perovskite grains, resulting in high perovskite grain density and smaller grain size. As to the PbI₂ deposited via spin coating, grains have fuzzy domain boundaries and fewer grain boundaries, therefore, the final perovskite film has lower grain density and larger grain size when PbI₂ crystals are converted to MAPbI₃ perovskite by migration of MA+ cations from the grain boundaries. The cross-sectional SEM images of MAPbI₃ perovskite made from different PbI₂ precursor are shown in Figure 9: It can be observed that the crystalline structure of MAPbI₃ perovskite thin film prepared by spin coating fused together (Figure 9(a)), nevertheless, that by thermal evaporation has clear grain boundaries and crystal piled up together (Figure 9(b)), which is consistent with the above results and analysis.

4. Conclusions

In summary, we have found that the PbI₂ thin film has different characteristics fabricated by different process based on the two-step sequential deposition method. The PbI₂ thin film fabricated by thermal evaporation usually has a clear crystal shape and a loose structure comparing with that by spin coating. However, the latter has fuzzy domain boundaries and fewer grain boundaries than the former. The final perovskite films are very dependent on the characteristics of PbI₂ precursor. We suggest that the characteristics of PbI₂ layers fabricated by spin coating mainly influence on the roughness of perovskite film rather than the grain size, while, the characteristics of PbI₂ film have an effect on both the grain size and the film surface roughness of the final perovskite films. So, when perovskite applied to TFTs as active layer, in order to make carrier mobility maximized, we need a bigger grain size and higher coverage. Thus, the research

of influence of PbI₂ on characteristic of perovskite thin films is important and meaningful.

We suggested the formation of perovskite is that the PbI₂ crystals as the nucleus start to grow into perovskite grains, where they reacted with MAI to convert to MAPbI₃ by migration of MA+ cations from the grain boundaries. The high-quality perovskite films can be achieved by adjusting the PbI₂ crystallization.

Acknowledgements

The work reported here was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 61076006), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Zhang; Project No. 61377031) and the Flat-Panel Display Special Project of China’s 863 Plan (Project No. 2008AA03A335).

Cite this paper

Peng, Y.Z., Wu, Y.X., Tang, L.L., Li, J., Xu, J., Du, Y.Y., Huang, L.K., Cai, H.K., Ni, J. and Zhang J.J. (2017) The Influence of PbI₂ on Characteristic of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Thin Films. Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science, 7, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.4236/mnsms.2017.74004

References