Copper phthalocyanines provide by far the most important of all blue and green pigments. The chemistry of the phthalocyanines has been discussed in some depth in Chapter 5, so only a brief account is presented here. Copper phthalocyanine, 212 (C. I. Pigment Blue 15), is arguably the single most important organic pigment. Copper phthalocyanine finds widespread use in most pigment applications because of its brilliant blue colour and its excellent resistance towards light, heat, solvents, acids and alkalis. In addition, in spite of its structural complexity, copper phthalocyanine is a relatively inexpensive pigment as it is manufactured
is almost always the pigment of choice for cyan printing inks, and it is suitable also for use in most paint and plastics applications. The most important green organic pigments are copper phthalocyanines in which most or all of the ring hydrogen atoms are replaced by halogens. These copper phthalocyanine greens, which exhibit properties comparable to the blues, are also excellent pigments.