| Phthalo Blue | ||
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| Hex triplet | #000f89 | |
| RGBB | (r, g, b) | (0, 15, 137) |
| HSV | (h, s, v) | (233°, 100%, 54%) |
| Source | The Mother of All HTML Colo(u)r Charts | |
| B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte) |
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Phthalocyanine Blue BN, also called monastral blue, phthalo blue (and others) (CAS 147-14-8, EINECS 205-685-1), is a bright, greenish-blue crystalline synthetic blue pigment from the group of phthalocyanine dyes.
It was first developed as a pigment in the mid-1930s. Its brilliant blue is frequently used in paints and dyes. It is highly valued for its superior properties such as light fastness, tinting strength, covering power and resistance to the effects of alkalies and acids. It has the appearance of a blue powder, insoluble in water and most solvents. The story goes, that a Chemist at the ICI phthalimide plant was troubled by blue contamination of his product. This was traced to a by-product formed by the phthalimide reacting with the iron reactor. He took samples of this blue and using sulphuric acid as a solvent he managed to produce a workable pigment. This was converted into the copper centred blue and sold under the trade name Monastral. With the early alpha forms difficulty was experienced in forming stable dispersions, especially in mixtures with Rutile Titanium. The blue tended to flocculate. The beta form was more stable, as was the improved stablised alpha. There are even more isomeric forms available.
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The substance, chemical name (29H,31H-phthalocyaninato(2-)-N29,N30,N31,N32)copper (or copper phthalocyanine),[1] is also known as monastral blue, phthalo blue, helio blue, thalo blue, Winsor blue, phthalocyanine blue, C.I. Pigment Blue 15:2, Copper phthalocyanine blue, Copper tetrabenzoporphyrazine, Cu-Phthaloblue, PB-15, PB-36, and C.I. 74160. Numerous other trade names and synonyms exist.[2] The abbreviation "CuPc" is also used.[3]
Due to its stability, phthalo blue is also used in inks, coatings, and many plastics. The pigment is insoluble and has no tendency to migrate in the material. It is a standard pigment used in printing ink and the packaging industry.
A common component on the artist's palette, phthalo blue is a cool blue with a bias towards green. It has intense tinting strength and easily overpowers the mix when combined with other colors. It is a transparent staining color and can be applied using glazing techniques.
Industrial production was of the order of 10,000 tonnes pa in the 1980–90s in Japan alone.[2] The pigment is the highest volume pigment produced.[4]
Phthalocyanine Blue BN is also used as a source material for manufacture of Phthalocyanine Green G.
Copper phthalocyanine, often referred to as CuPc, is also a leading material used in organic solar cell research.
Phthalocyanine blue (C32H16N8Cu) a complex of copper with phthalocyanine. Molecular mass is 576.08,[1] melting point 600 C (with decomposition), the substance is practically insoluble in water (< 0.1g / 100 ml @ 20C),[1] but soluble in concentrated Sulphuric acid[2] Density of the solid is ~1.6 g/cc.[2] The color is due to a π-π* electronic transition, with λmax ~ 610 nm.[5]
The compound is non-biodegradeable, but not toxic to fish or plants.[2] No specific dangers have been associated with this compound.[6] Oral LD50 in mammals is estimated to be greater than 5 g per kg, with no ill effects found at that level of ingestion,[2] for chronic ingestion levels of concern were found to occur at 0.2 g/kg or greater.[2] There is no evidence for carcinogenic effects yet known.[2] There is some evidence that exposure to phalocyanines can cause serious birth defects in developing embryos.[7]