CuPc, Copper(II) phthalocyanine

Copper(II) phthalocyanine, known as CuPc, has been used as an electron donor with fullerene-C60 or phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) in vacuum-deposited organic photovoltaics (OPV)[1]. Power conversion efficiency of about 1% has been achieved [2] and improved efficiency of 4% with pentacene-doped CuPc layer [3]. CuPc has also been used as a hole-injection material for light-emitting diodes. It has been reported that a thin CuPc layer may effectively enhance the hole injection from the anode to the emissive-polymer layer, resulting in a dramatic decrease of operating voltage of the device [4]. Device stability was achieved by depositing a copper phthalocyanine CuPc hole-injection layer HIL on the ITO anode.

The improved stability of the device could be contributed to the good match of its highest-occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level to the work function of ITO, and the improved wetting property of organic materials on ITO. Moreover, CuPc has very weak absorption of light, with wavelengths from 400 to 500 nm, making it suitable for use in blue and green OLEDs. Effective electron-blocking was also observed for inorganic–organic hybrid perovskite solar cells when CuPc-doped Spiro-OMeTAD was used as the hole-transporting layer [5].

General Information

* Measurable with an optical spectrometer, see our spectrometer application notes.

Product Details

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

Chemical Structure

Device Structure(s)

Device structure	ITO/CuPc(6.0 nm)/[NPB*(3.8 nm)/CuPc (1.5 nm)]4/NPB (15.0 nm)/Alq3 (60.0 nm)/Mg:Ag/Ag [6]
Colour	Green
Max. Luminance	15,000 cd/m2
Max. Current Efficiency	10.8 cd/A

Device structure	ITO/CuPc(10 nm)/NPB(50 nm)/AlMq2OH*(80 nm)/ LiF(0.7 nm)/Al(80 nm) [7]
Colour	Blue
Turn-on Voltage	9 V
Max. Luminance	14,070 cd/m2

Device structure	ITO/CuPc (15 nm)/NPB (60 nm)/1% v/v C545T*:Alq3 (37.5 nm)/Alq3 (27.5 nm)/Mg:Alq3 (10 nm)/ WO3 (1 nm)/NPB (60 nm)/1% v/v C545T:Alq3 (37.5 nm)/Alq3 (37.5 nm)/LiF(1 nm)/Al (200 nm) [8]
Colour	Green
EQE@ 20 mA/cm2	12.6%
Current Efficiency@20 mA/cm2	49.2 cd/A
Power Efficiency@20 mA/cm2	5.5 lm W-1

Device structure	ITO/CuPc (15 nm)/NPB (30 nm)/ TPBi:Btp2Ir(acac)* 8 wt% (20 nm)/TPBi (15 nm)/Alq (15 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm) [9]
Colour	Red
Max. Luminance	4,798 cd/m2
EQE@4 mA/cm2	2.1%
Current Efficiency@4 mA/cm2	2.43 cd/A
Power Efficiency@4 mA/cm2	0.89 lm W-1

Device structure	ITO/CuPc (25 nm)/NPB (25 nm)/Alq3 (20nm)/LiF (0.3 nm)/Al (0.6 nm)/C60 (30 nm)/Mg:Ag (100 nm) [10]
Colour	White
Max. Luminance	17,170 cd/m2
Max. Current Efficiency	3.93 cd/A

Device structure	ITO/CuPc (25 nm)/NPB (45 nm)/Alq3 (60 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm) [11]
Colour	Green
Max. Luminance	23,510 cd/m2
Max. Current Efficiency	4.8 cd/A
Max. Power Efficiency	4.2 lm W-1

Device structure	ITO/CuPc (18 nm)/TPD (50 nm)/Alq3 (60 nm)/BCP (10 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm) [12]
Colour	Green
Max. Luminance	5,993 cd/m2
Max. Current Efficiency	3.82 cd/A
Max. Power Efficiency	2.61 lm W-1

*For chemical structure information, please refer to the cited references

Characterisation

MSDS Documentation

CuPc MSDS sheet

Literature and Reviews

1. Influence of codeposition on the performance of CuPc–C60 heterojunction photovoltaic devices, P. Sullivan et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 84, 1210 (2004).
2. Two‐layer organic photovoltaic cell, C.Tang et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 48, 183 (1986), http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.96937.
3. Improving efficiency of organic photovoltaic cells with pentacene-doped CuPc layer, W. Chen et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., 91, 191109 (2007), http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2806195.
4. Hole-injection enhancement by copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) in blue polymer light-emitting diodes, W. Yu et al., J. Appl. Phys., 89, 2343, (2001).
5. Effective Electron Blocking of CuPC-Doped Spiro-OMeTAD for Highly Efficient Inorganic–Organic Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells, J. Seo et al., Adv. Energy Mater., 2015, 1501320, DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201501320.
6. Organic light-emitting diodes with improved hole-electron balance by using copper phthalocyanine/aromatic diamine multiple quantum wells, Y. Qiu et al., Phys. Lett., 80, 2628 (2002); Appl. doi: 10.1063/1.1468894.
7. A High-Efficiency Blue Emitter for Small Molecule-Based Organic Light-Emitting Diode L. M. Leung et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 122, 5640-5641 (2000). DOI: 10.1021/ja000927z.
8. High-Efficiency Organic Electroluminescent Device with Multiple Emitting Units,C-C. Chang et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 43, 6418–6422 (2004); [DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.43.6418.
9. Obtaining high-efficiency red electrophosphorescent OLEDs by changing the thickness of light-emitting layer, X. Zhang et al., Display, 28, 150–153 (2007); doi:10.1016/j.displa.2007.06.001.
10. Contrast and efficiency enhancement in organic light-emitting devices utilizing high absorption and high charge mobility organic layers, W. Xie et al.,opt. Express, 14, 7954-7959 (2006).
11. Green Fluorescent Organic Light Emitting Device with High Luminance, N. Yang et al., Sensors & Transducers, 172 (6), 202-205 (2014).
12. Effect of thickness variation of hole injection and hole blocking layers on the performance of fluorescent green organic light emitting diodes, K. Narayan et al., Curr. Appl. Phys., 13, 18-25 (2013); dio: 10.1016/j.cap.2012.06.004.

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