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Product Code M631-500mg
Price £160 ex. VAT

Cobalt Phthalocyanine, p-type semiconducting material used in organic electronic devices

HIL material used to improve turn-on voltage and luminance in OLEDs


Cobalt phthalocynine (CoPc), a member of metal phthalocyanines (MPcs), are frequently used in many organic electronic devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), organic photovoltaics (OPVs), organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and chemical sensors as a p-type semiconducting material. Compared to other hole-injection layer (HIL) materials, most metal phthalocyanines are water and air stable, thermally stable, and nontoxic. They can be sublimed or sputtered with highly uniform, thin films on a variety of substrates. The synthesis of such materials are also relatively inexpensive and easy to prepare. The chemical structure of MPc allows tuning of its ionisation potential or HOMO levels by altering the central atom in Pc macrocycles. 

Using cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) layer as a hole-injection layer (HIL), remarkable improvements in turn-on voltage and luminance have been observed in organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) [1, 2, 3, 4]. The driving voltages of the MPc electroluminance devices are found to decrease in the order of ZnPc < CuPc < FePc < CoPc < PbPc < NiPc < VOPc < SnPc < H2Pc. This is in agreement with the order of HOMO levels of MPcs [1].

General Information

CAS number 3317-67-7
Chemical formula C32H16CoN8
Molecular weight 571.46 g/mol
HOMO/LUMO HOMO 5.0 eV, LUMO 3.4 eV [1]
Synonyms
  • CoPc
  • Cobalt(II) phthalocyanine
  • Phthalocyanine cobalt(II)
  • Cobalt phthalocyanine
Classification / Family Phthalocyanine salt, Hole-injection layer (HIL) materials, Light-Emitting Diodes, Organic electronics.

Product Details

Purity 99% (sublimed)
Thermal Gravimetric Analysis 602.1 °C (5% weight loss)
Colour Purple powder

*Sublimation is a technique used to obtain ultra pure-grade chemicals. For more details about sublimation, please refer to the Sublimed Materials.

Chemical Structure

Chemical structure of cobalt phthalocyanine
Chemical Structure of Cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc)

Device Structure(s)

Device structure ITO/CoPc (10 nm)/NPB (60 nm)/Alq3 (75 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (200 nm) [2]
Colour Green green light emitting device
Turn-on Voltage at1 cd/m2 4.3 V
Max. Luminance 53,700 cd/m2 (14.8 V)
Power Efficiency at 100 mA/cm2 1.02 lm W−1
Device structure ITO/NPB (30 nm)/CBP:8 wt% (t-bt)2Ir(acac)* (15 nm)/BPhen(35 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/CoPc:C60 (4:1) (5 nm)/MoO3(5 nm)/NPB(30 nm)/CBP:8 wt% (t-bt)2Ir(acac)* (15 nm)/BPhen (35 nm)/Mg:Ag (100 nm) [3]
Colour    Yellow yellow device
Max. EQE 16.78%
Max. Luminance  42,236 cd/m2
Max. Current Efficiency 50.2 cd/A
Max. Power Efficiency 12.9 lm W−1
*For chemical structure information, please refer to the cited references

Characterisation (TGA)

tga trace of copc
TGA trace of Cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc)

MSDS Documentation

CoPc MSDSCoPc MSDS sheet

Literature and Reviews

  1. A relationship between driving voltage and the highest occupied molecular orbital level of hole-transporting metallophthalocyanine layer for organic electroluminescence devices, L. Zhu et al., Thin Solid Films 396, 213–218 (2001). doi:10.1016/S0040-6090(01)01232-9.
  2. Improved efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes using CoPc buffer layer, P-C. Kao et al., Thin Solid Films 498, 249– 253 (2006). doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2005.07.120.
  3. Effect of bulk and planar heterojunctions based charge generation layers on the performance of tandem organic light-emitting diodes, Z. Ma et al., Org. Electronics, 30, 136-142 (2016). doi:10.1016/j.orgel.2015.12.020
  4. Hole Injection Enhancements of a CoPc and CoPc:NPB Mixed Layer in Organic Light-Emitting Devices, H. Lee et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 116, 13210-13216 (2012). dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp3029598.
  5. Ambipolar organic heterojunction transistors with various p-type semiconductors, J. Shi et al., Thin Solid Films 516, 3270–3273 (2008). doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2007.08.037.
  6. Electrical transport mechanisms and photovoltaic characterization of cobalt phthalocyanine on silicon heterojunctions, H.S. Soliman et al., Thin Solid Films 516, 8678–8683 (2008). doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2008.04.102.
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