Pigment Blue 15:3 (Phthalocyanine Blue) in Plastics

Pigment Blue 15:3 (phthalocyanine blue, CAS 147-14-8) is the beta crystal form of copper phthalocyanine, the organic polycyclic pigment that colours most blue plastics, from blue masterbatch for packaging to housewares and fibres. All five commercial forms, PB15, PB15:1, PB15:2, PB15:3 and PB15:4, share one CAS number, one EC number (205-685-1) and one Colour Index constitution number (C.I. 74160), so every identity, regulatory and safety statement here applies to the whole Pigment Blue 15 family, and the suffix after the colon is the only thing that tells a compounder which grade is in the bag. What, then, does 15:3 actually specify?

Pigment Blue 15:3 is registered under REACH at 10,000 to 100,000 tonnes a year, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is listed for United States food contact in 21 CFR 178.3297 without a numeric limit, and is not on the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 because that list does not cover colorants. Pigment Blue 15:3 is one of the colorant pages in our directory of plastic additives, each with the same identity, dosage and regulatory fields.

This page gives the identity data of copper phthalocyanine blue, separates the alpha and beta crystal forms across all five C.I. names, sets out how the pigment is dosed through blue masterbatch, names the four plastics applications, answers the polypropylene warpage question with the published shrinkage data, prints the dated EU and US regulatory matrix, compares the three recorded alternatives and names the producers.

The identity table below carries the values that a specification, a safety data sheet and a food-contact dossier ask for.

What Is Pigment Blue 15:3 (Phthalocyanine Blue)?#

Pigment Blue 15:3 is an organic polycyclic pigment: a single copper atom held at the centre of a phthalocyanine macrocycle, a large flat conjugated ring system that absorbs the red and yellow part of the visible spectrum and reflects blue. Which substances does the name phthalocyanine blue actually cover? It covers five Colour Index generic names, Pigment Blue 15, PB15:1, PB15:2, PB15:3 and PB15:4, which describe the same molecule, C32H16CuN8, under one CAS number, 147-14-8, and one constitution number, C.I. 74160. The molecule is insoluble in the polymer it colours and does not migrate out of it, the property that separates a pigment from a soluble dye.

Copper phthalocyanine is the highest-volume member of the organic pigments for plastics, the group that colours by absorption rather than by scattering, and phthalocyanine derivatives account for about 25 % of all synthetic organic pigments. Its function in a plastics recipe is twofold: it is the blue pigment of a blue compound, and it is also used at very low levels as a toner, where a trace of blue shifts the shade of another colour.

What does the "15:3" in Pigment Blue 15:3 mean?#

The "15:3" does not identify a different chemical: it identifies a different crystal form of the same molecule, copper phthalocyanine, CAS 147-14-8. PB15, PB15:1 and PB15:2 are alpha-form grades; PB15:3 and PB15:4 are beta-form grades. The suffix is a polymorph code rather than a composition code, which is why a certificate of analysis quoting only the CAS number, the EC number or C.I. 74160 leaves the buyer without the one attribute that changes between grades.

Is phthalo blue the same as phthalocyanine blue?#

Yes: phthalo blue is the everyday short form of phthalocyanine blue, and both names cover the same pigment, copper phthalocyanine. The names recorded for this substance are C.I. Pigment Blue 15 with its four suffixed forms, C.I. 74160, phthalo blue, monastral blue, CuPc and copper phthalocyanine, and they appear interchangeably on data sheets, customs paperwork and pigment catalogues. Monastral blue is the historical trade name and CuPc the chemical abbreviation for the same substance. A purchase order naming phthalo blue and a dossier naming copper phthalocyanine describe one material.

What is C.I. 74160?#

C.I. 74160 is the Colour Index constitution number for copper phthalocyanine, the chemistry code that all five Pigment Blue 15 grades share. A constitution number identifies the chemistry of a colorant, while a C.I. generic name such as Pigment Blue 15:3 identifies the commercial colorant, including its crystal form, so the two numbers answer different questions and a complete specification quotes both alongside CAS 147-14-8.

How Does Copper Phthalocyanine Colour a Polymer?#

Pigment Blue 15:3 colours a polymer by selective absorption: the conjugated phthalocyanine macrocycle absorbs the red and yellow part of the visible spectrum, and the light that leaves the part is blue. Why does a blue that strong still let light through? Organic pigments have a low refractive index, close to that of the polymer around them, so they scatter very little light and stay transparent in plastics unless a white pigment is added alongside them.

The 2023 study of injection-moulded polypropylene published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences shows the contrast directly: its transparent phthalocyanine masterbatch gave a translucent coloured polypropylene, while its chromium and copper oxide masterbatch gave an opaque one. Opacity in a blue compound comes from the white pigment, not the blue: titanium dioxide (TiO2, Pigment White 6) does the scattering, and hiding power in a blue polyolefin is bought with it rather than with more phthalocyanine.

Three properties follow from the pigment being insoluble in the polymer and low in refractive index.

• Insolubility, which keeps the pigment as a dispersed solid phase that does not migrate, bleed or bloom out of the part.
• Transparency, which makes a phthalocyanine blue translucent on its own and turns titanium dioxide into the opacifier of a blue compound.
• Colour strength in toning, which lets very small additions shift the shade of another colour, the use recorded for this pigment as a toner.

PB15, 15:1, 15:2, 15:3 and 15:4: Which Crystal Form Do You Specify?#

The five commercial Pigment Blue 15 grades split into two families: PB15, PB15:1 and PB15:2 are alpha-form pigments, and PB15:3 and PB15:4 are beta-form pigments, with the beta form the more stable of the two. The table below sets the five C.I. names against the crystal form, the stability note recorded for each and the two attributes our source library does not yet carry.

Footnote: all five share CAS 147-14-8, EC 205-685-1 and C.I. 74160.

Two columns of that table are deliberately empty. Pigment sellers and encyclopedia entries describe red-shade and green-shade versions, chlorinated stabilisation and non-flocculating grades, but none of those distinctions is verified in our source library, and this page prints a value only when it has a primary source behind it.

The alpha forms: PB15, PB15:1 and PB15:2#

PB15, PB15:1 and PB15:2 are the three alpha-form grades of copper phthalocyanine, and our record holds one documented processing consequence for them: early alpha pigments flocculated with rutile titanium dioxide. That is the whole of the verified alpha-form record. The trade literature adds a stabilisation mechanism for PB15:1 and a non-flocculating claim for PB15:2, and this page does not repeat them, because our source library carries neither the mechanism nor a source for it. A buyer who needs an alpha grade therefore obtains the crystal-form statement and the flocculation behaviour from the manufacturer in writing.

The beta forms: PB15:3 and PB15:4#

PB15:3 and PB15:4 are the beta-form grades, and the beta form is the more stable polymorph, which is why PB15:3 is the grade most often specified for blue masterbatch. What separates PB15:3 from PB15:4 in practice is heat stability and lightfastness per grade, and our source library does not yet hold those two values for either of them. This page will state them once they have been verified against manufacturer data sheets, which is also the point at which the empty cells in the crystal-form table close.

Why did early alpha grades flocculate with rutile TiO2?#

Flocculation is the re-agglomeration of already dispersed pigment particles, and early alpha-form phthalocyanine blues flocculated when they were combined with rutile titanium dioxide. The consequence in a compound is a loss of colour strength and an unstable shade, which matters most in pastel shades, where a blue pigment works alongside a large amount of white. Our source library records the fact and not the colloidal mechanism behind it, so this page names the behaviour without explaining it through surface treatment or dispersant chemistry.

What Are the Physical and Chemical Properties of Pigment Blue 15:3?#

The property table below carries every physical and chemical value our source library holds for copper phthalocyanine blue, and names the properties it does not hold.

Pigment Blue 15:3 is a solid that appears as bright blue microcrystals with a purple lustre, melts at 480 °C (896 °F) and is insoluble in the polymer it colours. The melting point is a property of the crystal, not a processing-temperature rating, and it is never read as a heat-stability limit for a compound. The missing rows matter as much as the filled ones: density, particle size, oil absorption, specific surface area, heat stability and lightfastness are grade attributes rather than substance attributes, they differ between producers, and a supplier-neutral reference names the property and points to the data sheet rather than printing a number from a seller listing.

Which Polymers Use Pigment Blue 15:3, and at What Dosage?#

Pigment Blue 15:3 almost never reaches a moulding machine as a powder: it is dispersed into a carrier resin first, and the converter doses that blue masterbatch at 1 to 5 % of the base polymer. Blue pigment reaches the machine as masterbatch, a concentrate of pigment in a carrier resin, which carries 40 to 65 wt% of the additive, and 15 to 80 wt% in extreme cases. How much pigment does that put in the part? The final colorant concentration is the masterbatch loading multiplied by the masterbatch fraction, so a masterbatch at 40 wt% pigment let down at 2 % gives 0.8 wt% pigment in the part, an arithmetic result rather than a recommendation, because colour masterbatches are formulated to a colour target and not to a fixed pigment level.

Footnote: no PB15:3-specific loading is recorded in our source library; the ranges above are the general masterbatch conventions.

Pigment Blue 15:3 in polypropylene and polyethylene#

Polypropylene is the polymer where Pigment Blue 15:3 needs the most attention, because phthalocyanine pigments nucleate PP, and a nucleated polypropylene crystallises faster, shrinks more and warps more easily than an unpigmented one. Phthalocyanines did so slightly more efficiently than quinacridones in the comparison recorded for injection moulding and fibres. Polyethylene carries no equivalent nucleation note in our record, which leaves the same generic masterbatch let-down of 1 to 5 % and no polymer-specific caveat. Both polyolefins take the pigment through a carrier-resin concentrate rather than as powder, and the rest of the PP recipe, from nucleator to antioxidant, is on additives for polypropylene (PP).

Pigment Blue 15:3 in PVC and other polymers#

In PVC the property that matters is that Pigment Blue 15:3 is insoluble in the polymer and does not migrate, so it does not bleed out of a plasticised compound the way a solvent dye would. That behaviour also helps a blue PVC article stay inside the Annex II finished-article limit of 5 mg/kg for copper. No PVC dosage, no plate-out behaviour and no interaction with a heat-stabiliser system is recorded for this pigment, so the loading is set by colour matching and confirmed on trial compounds.

From pigment powder to blue masterbatch: the let-down math#

The pigment level in the finished part is the masterbatch loading multiplied by the masterbatch fraction: a blue masterbatch containing 40 wt% Pigment Blue 15:3, let down at 2 %, puts 0.8 wt% pigment in the part.

final pigment content (wt%) = masterbatch pigment loading (wt%) × masterbatch fraction in the blend

Suppliers write that dilution in two conventions, and both appear on order documents: 2 % of the blend is the same dilution as a let-down ratio of 49:1, just as 5 % is the same as 19:1. The conversion is the only arithmetic between a pigment loading and a colour recipe, and both conventions are converted for you in the let-down ratio calculator.

What Is Pigment Blue 15:3 Used For in Plastics?#

Pigment Blue 15:3 is used in four plastics areas: blue masterbatch, packaging, housewares and fibres. The four are listed below in the order in which the pigment passes through them, from concentrate to finished article.

• Blue masterbatch, the concentrate in which the pigment is dispersed before it reaches a converter.
• Packaging, including the food-contact articles that raise the regulatory questions answered below.
• Housewares, the second volume application for moulded blue parts.
• Fibres, where the pigment is carried inside the filament rather than applied to its surface.

Blue masterbatch and colour concentrates#

Blue masterbatch is the main route by which Pigment Blue 15:3 enters plastics, and the same pigment is also used at very low levels as a toner to shift the shade of another colour. A colour concentrate holds 40 to 65 wt% of the colorant in a carrier resin and is let down at 1 to 5 % of the base polymer, which is why the pigment powder is handled by masterbatch producers rather than by converters. How a color masterbatch is built, from carrier choice to pigment loading, is covered on its own page.

Packaging and housewares#

Packaging and housewares are the two volume applications named in our record for Pigment Blue 15:3, and both raise the food-contact question that the regulatory section answers. A blue packaging article faces 21 CFR 178.3297 in the United States and, in the European Union, the framework Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 with the Annex II metal limits of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, since colorants have no Union list entry of their own. The full additive package for a printed food tray is on additives for food packaging.

Fibres#

Fibres are the fourth application, and polypropylene fibre is also where the nucleating behaviour of phthalocyanine pigments was compared with that of quinacridones. No fibre dosage, no spin-dyeing detail and no filament property for this pigment is recorded in our source library, so the loading in a coloured filament is set by the fibre producer and the masterbatch supplier together rather than by a published range.

How Does Pigment Blue 15:3 Perform in Plastics?#

Four performance indicators decide whether a blue pigment survives a plastics process: heat stability at the processing temperature, lightfastness and weathering, migration and bleeding resistance, and dispersion quality. Our source library holds a verified answer for exactly one of the four, migration resistance, and a study result for a fifth behaviour, nucleation in polypropylene. The table below states that position row by row rather than filling the gaps with catalogue adjectives.

How heat stability and lightfastness are rated, and on which scales, is explained on pigment fastness in plastics, which sets out the test conditions behind a rating rather than the rating of a single grade. Two performance figures circulate widely for this pigment, and both trace back to pigment sellers and art suppliers rather than to a primary source, so neither appears anywhere on this page, in its tables or in its structured data.

Heat stability, lightfastness and dispersion: what the data sheet must state#

Because the per-grade numbers are not public, the four values to demand from a Pigment Blue 15:3 supplier are the crystal form, the heat stability in the polymer actually being run, the lightfastness rating with the scale it was measured on, and the dispersion result with its test method. Buyers should put all four in the enquiry, because a data sheet that omits them cannot be compared with a competing one.

1. Crystal form, as alpha or beta and as the C.I. suffix, since CAS 147-14-8 alone does not identify the grade.
2. Heat stability, as a temperature with a dwell time and the polymer it was measured in, for example heat stability in HDPE at a defined depth of shade.
3. Lightfastness, as a rating with the scale used, since a Blue Wool number and an ASTM rating are not the same measurement.
4. Dispersion, as a filter-pressure value or a microdispersion result with the screen and the method named.

A shade is comparable only if it was measured the same way, which is the subject of color measurement and matching of plastics.

Does Pigment Blue 15:3 Warp Polypropylene Parts?#

Yes, it can: phthalocyanine pigments act as nucleating agents in polypropylene, and a nucleated polypropylene crystallises faster, shrinks more and distorts more easily than an unpigmented one. Faster crystallisation shows up in a moulded part as higher mould shrinkage, a difference between the flow direction and the cross-flow direction, and warpage. A pigment that nucleates behaves like one of the deliberate nucleating agents for polypropylene, without being dosed as one and without appearing on the formulation sheet as one.

In the 2023 International Journal of Molecular Sciences study of injection-moulded polypropylene, shrinkage rose nearly linearly with masterbatch concentration over a range of 1 to 5 wt%. The transparent phthalocyanine masterbatch raised the relative shrinkage in the flow direction by 13.6 to 22.3 % above neat polypropylene across that range, while an opaque chromium and copper oxide masterbatch raised it by 49.5 to 58.3 %. One qualification belongs with the numbers: the transparent masterbatch measured in that study was a phthalocyanine green, not Pigment Blue 15:3, so the figures describe the behaviour of the phthalocyanine class in polypropylene and are not a shrinkage table for a blue masterbatch. Both mechanisms, nucleation and heat build-up, are compared on pigment-induced warpage. For a moulder, a colour change into a phthalocyanine blue on an existing tool is a dimensional change as well as a visual one, and it is validated on moulded parts rather than on colour chips.

What Is the Regulatory Status of Pigment Blue 15:3?#

Pigment Blue 15:3 is registered under REACH at 10,000 to 100,000 tonnes a year, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is not listed on Annex XIV, is not restricted under Annex XVII, is listed for food contact in the United States under 21 CFR 178.3297 without a numeric limit, and is not on the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 because that list does not cover colorants (status 24 September 2026). The matrix below states each instrument separately, with the cells that are still being verified marked as such.

What a registration in the 10,000 to 100,000 tonne band actually obliges a supplier to do is set out on REACH and plastic additives, which also explains why a registration number says nothing on its own about a substance's hazard profile.

Is Pigment Blue 15:3 REACH registered, and is it an SVHC?#

Yes to the first and no to the second: Pigment Blue 15:3 is registered under REACH in the 10,000 to 100,000 tonnes a year band, and it is absent from the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern as of 24 September 2026. The registration sits under EC 205-685-1 in the ECHA database, and the substance appears on neither Annex XIV nor Annex XVII. Lead chromate pigments have been on the SVHC Candidate List since 13 January 2010 and on Annex XIV entries 10 to 12 with a sunset date of 21 May 2015, and cadmium sulphide was added on 16 December 2013, while copper phthalocyanine has never been added.

Is phthalocyanine blue allowed in EU food-contact plastics?#

Yes, but not by way of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011: colorants are not on its Union list, so a blue food-contact article is assessed under the framework Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Council of Europe Resolution AP(89)1 and national rules such as the German BfR Recommendation IX. The number that does bind comes from the same plastics regulation by another route: Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 limits copper migration from the finished article to 5 mg/kg of food, and that is the limit a copper-containing pigment has to respect regardless of its absence from the Union list.

The scope of the Union list, and the Annex II metal limits that apply to the finished article, are explained on EU 10/2011. The Council of Europe reference that fills the gap is Resolution AP(89)1, whose numeric purity criteria for pigments could not be re-verified against the current Council of Europe text and are therefore not reproduced here. A food-contact declaration for a blue article rests on three statements from the supplier: the identity of the pigment, compliance with the applicable colorant purity criteria, and migration testing of the finished article against the Annex II metal limits.

Why has Pigment Blue 15:3 no EU 10/2011 FCM number?#

Because the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 covers monomers and additives, and colorants are deliberately left out of it, so no organic pigment carries an FCM number. The entries that look like counterexamples are substances treated as additives as well as colorants: carbon black (FCM 411), titanium dioxide (FCM 610, 805, 873 and 1077), zinc sulphide (FCM 403), iron oxide (FCM 409), mica (FCM 597) and the optical brighteners OB-1 (FCM 422) and BBOT (FCM 500).

Is Pigment Blue 15:3 FDA approved for food contact?#

Listed, not approved: phthalocyanine blue appears in 21 CFR 178.3297, the FDA's list of colorants for polymers, under all five Pigment Blue 15 names, with C.I. 74160 and CAS 147-14-8 and without a numeric use limit. Why "listed" and "approved" are not the same thing under US law is set out on FDA food contact rules for plastic additives. No numeric limit does not mean no constraint: the section defines a colorant as a dye, pigment or other substance that imparts or alters the colour of a food-contact material without migrating visible colour to the food, and its use remains subject to good manufacturing practice.

Other pigments in the same section are capped. Pigment Red 254, Pigment Brown 24 and Pigment Yellow 53 are limited to 1 % under conditions of use B to H, chromium oxide green and cobalt aluminate to 5 % and zinc sulfide to 10 %, while Pigment Red 122, Pigment Violet 23, bismuth vanadate and Solvent Yellow 114 are not listed at all. Every colorant in the section, with its numeric limit where one exists, is tabulated on 21 CFR 178.3297.

Is Pigment Blue 15:3 Safe? Health, Safety and Environmental Profile#

What our source library records about the safety profile of Pigment Blue 15:3 is regulatory, not toxicological: it is not a Substance of Very High Concern, it is not restricted under REACH Annex XVII, and it is not listed under the Stockholm Convention or the EU POPs Regulation (EU) 2019/1021. The three records that exist are set out below, and the gaps are named rather than filled.

• Classification. No GHS or CLP classification for copper phthalocyanine blue is recorded in our source library, and an empty field is not a clean bill of health. This page will state one only after it has been verified against the ECHA classification and labelling inventory for EC 205-685-1, and the same applies to the TSCA and California Proposition 65 entries.
• Migration. The pigment is insoluble in the polymer and does not migrate, which is why the binding number in a food-contact assessment is a metal limit on the finished article, copper at 5 mg/kg of food under Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011.
• Regulatory position. No Candidate List entry, no Annex XIV entry, no Annex XVII restriction and no POPs listing exists for this substance as of 24 September 2026.

No toxicological value for copper phthalocyanine is established in our source library, so none appears here. The colorants that do appear on the chemicals-of-concern lists, lead chromate and the cadmium pigments, are listed under toxic plastic additives, and the copper phthalocyanines are not among them.

What Are the Alternatives to Pigment Blue 15:3?#

Our source library records three alternatives to Pigment Blue 15:3: ultramarine blue (Pigment Blue 29), cobalt blue (Pigment Blue 28) and indanthrone blue (Pigment Blue 60), and all three are chosen for reasons the phthalocyanine cannot satisfy. The table below compares them on the fields that decide a substitution, identity, class and regulatory status, and marks the cells that are not yet in the record.

Footnote: Pigment Blue 60 has no profile of its own yet; it is named only as an alternative on the Pigment Blue 15 page.

Two of the three alternatives are inorganic pigments for plastics, which trade colour strength for durability and, being high in refractive index, scatter light instead of transmitting it.

Pigment Blue 15:3 vs ultramarine blue (PB29)#

Ultramarine blue is the inorganic reddish-blue alternative: a sodalite-type aluminosilicate whose colour comes from polysulfide radicals trapped in the cage, and its standard job in plastics is toning the yellowness out of white and natural compounds. Its CAS number is 57455-37-5, and an ECHA CHEM query found no active dossier under that CAS, so its registration route still has to be verified, while the FDA lists ultramarines as identified in 21 CFR 73.2725 without a numeric limit. Ultramarine blue (Pigment Blue 29) is bleached by mineral acids with release of hydrogen sulfide, which copper phthalocyanine is not, and that acid sensitivity, not colour, decides most substitutions between the two.

Pigment Blue 15:3 vs cobalt blue (PB28)#

Cobalt blue is the high-durability alternative: a cobalt aluminate spinel, CoAl2O4, with a molecular weight of 176.89 g/mol, classed as a complex inorganic colour pigment and specified when weather, heat and chemical resistance matter more than colour strength. It is registered under REACH at 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year under EC 310-193-6. That durability carries two regulatory prices: the FDA ceiling of 5 % by weight in all other polymers under conditions of use A to H, and the Annex II cobalt migration limit of 0.05 mg/kg, a hundred times tighter than the copper limit of 5 mg/kg. Cobalt blue (Pigment Blue 28) therefore changes the food-contact calculation as well as the colour.

Pigment Blue 15:3 vs indanthrone blue (PB60)#

Indanthrone blue (Pigment Blue 60) is the third alternative named in our record for Pigment Blue 15:3, and it is the one where this page has to stop: our source library holds no verified data for it yet. No CAS number, no REACH tonnage, no SVHC status and no food-contact position for indanthrone blue is established, and describing its chemistry, shade or fastness from general knowledge would break the sourcing rule that governs every other figure on this page. The identity, regulatory and performance data will appear on Pigment Blue 60 (indanthrone blue) once its our sources are built and checked against primary sources.

Pigment Blue 15:3 vs Pigment Green 7#

Pigment Green 7 is the same molecule with chlorine on it: chlorinating the copper phthalocyanine macrocycle shifts its absorption and turns the blue into a green, which is why the two pigments share a regulatory profile. Its identifiers are CAS 1328-53-6, EC 215-524-7 and C.I. 74260, and it is registered under REACH at 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year, one band below the blue. Pigment Green 7 (phthalocyanine green) is likewise absent from the EU 10/2011 Union list, subject to the same Annex II copper limit of 5 mg/kg, and listed in 21 CFR 178.3297 without a numeric limit. It is also the pigment measured in the polypropylene shrinkage study quoted above.

Who Manufactures Pigment Blue 15:3? Grades and Suppliers#

Pigment Blue 15:3 is produced by four groups recorded in our supplier data: Sun Chemical, Sudarshan (which now includes Heubach), DIC and Toyo. Two of the four are linked, because Sun Chemical belongs to the DIC group. DIC closed the acquisition of BASF Colors and Effects in 2021, Clariant's pigment business went to Heubach and SK Capital in 2022, and Sudarshan completed the Heubach acquisition on 3 March 2025.

Footnote: the brands listed are company pigment brands from our supplier record, not verified Pigment Blue 15:3 grade names.

Buyers should ask for the crystal form, the heat stability in their own polymer and the food-contact statement in writing, because none of the three is on a public data sheet and none of them can be inferred from CAS 147-14-8. More producers, with their locations and certifications, are in the directory of pigment manufacturers and suppliers for plastics.

Most buyers do not buy the pigment at all: they buy from color masterbatch manufacturers who have already dispersed it into a carrier resin, which moves the dispersion risk and the colour-matching work to the concentrate producer.

How Do Phthalocyanine Pigments Fit into the Wider Colorant Family?#

Pigment Blue 15:3 belongs to the phthalocyanine class, which accounts for about 25 % of all synthetic organic pigments and supplies both the standard blue and, after chlorination, the standard green of the plastics industry. The class sits inside the organic pigments, which colour by absorption, alongside the inorganic pigments and the complex inorganic colour pigments, which colour largely by scattering, and alongside the soluble dyes, which are excluded from most plastics applications because they dissolve and migrate.

Where the phthalocyanines sit among the pigment, dye and effect classes is set out on colorants for plastics. World organic pigment production was about 250,000 tonnes in 2006, and the phthalocyanine share of it is split across plastics, printing inks, coatings and textile printing.

What is the Colour Index, and who maintains it?#

The Colour Index is the naming system behind every PB, PR and PY code: it lists over 27,000 commercial products under about 13,000 generic names and is maintained jointly by SDC Enterprises and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. It was first printed in 1924 and has been online since the fourth edition in 2000. Its two identifiers answer different questions: the generic name, Pigment Blue 15:3, names the commercial colorant including its crystal form, while the constitution number, 74160, names the chemistry shared by all five forms. How generic names and constitution numbers are assigned is explained on Colour Index (C.I.) pigment names and numbers.

Phthalo blue outside plastics: inks, coatings and artists' paint#

Most of what is written about phthalo blue online is about paint: copper phthalocyanine was first prepared in 1927, sold by ICI as Monastral blue after Patrick Linstead at Imperial College solved its structure, and it has been an artists' and printing-ink pigment ever since. PlasticAdditives.net covers the substance only as a plastics colorant, so this page carries no guidance on oil, acrylic or offset ink, and the behaviour that actually separates a pigment from a dye inside a polymer is described on colorant migration in plastics.

Is Pigment Blue 15:3 organic or inorganic?#

Organic: Pigment Blue 15:3 is an organic polycyclic pigment, and the single copper atom at the centre of the macrocycle does not make it an inorganic pigment. The classification follows the carbon-based macrocycle that carries the colour, not the metal it holds.

Is Pigment Blue 15:3 the same as cyan?#

No: cyan is a printing colour standard, not a substance, and copper phthalocyanine grades are the pigments most often used to hit it. Which Colour Index grade a given printing standard specifies is not recorded in our source library.

What is the HS code for Pigment Blue 15:3?#

Our source library does not yet carry an HS code for Pigment Blue 15:3, and we do not publish tariff codes we have not verified against a customs tariff. The verified code will be added here once it has been checked against the applicable tariff schedule.