Synthesis of highly crystalline copper phthalocyanine needles by solvothermal method

•Needle-like CuPc crystals was synthesized via a solvothermal reaction.•Anhydrous ethanol was used as the reaction medium.•The green, facile and low-cost synthesis route of CuPc crystals was proposed.

As an important organic semiconductor, copper phthalocyanine has been widely used in various photo/electronic devices. Until now, the one-step synthesis of copper phthalocyanine micro/nano-crystals is mainly limited to the high cost physical vapor deposition technology. Herein, for the first time, we proposed a green and low-cost solvothermal method for direct synthesis of highly crystalline copper phthalocyanine needles in nontoxic anhydrous ethanol medium at 190 °C. The purification of the as prepared copper phthalocyanine needles just required washing unreacted reactants with ethanol. The structures and morphologies of the copper phthalocyanine needles were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffractometor, and scanning electronic microscopy, respectively. Moreover, the thermal and photoelectronic performances were investigated preliminarily.

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