Pigment Green 7 (Phthalocyanine Green) in Plastics

Pigment Green 7 (phthalocyanine green, CAS 1328-53-6) is a chlorinated copper phthalocyanine, the organic pigment that gives transparent green shades in plastics, delivered mainly as green masterbatch for packaging and crates. Because the molecule carries 13 to 15 chlorine atoms on the same copper phthalocyanine ring that makes phthalocyanine blue, a compounder's questions about it are specific: how much reaches the part, whether it warps polypropylene, and where it stands under food-contact law.

Pigment Green 7 is registered under REACH at 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is listed in 21 CFR 178.3297 without a numeric limit, sits outside the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 because colorants are not covered by it, and is subject to the Annex II copper limit of 5 mg/kg of food on the finished food-contact article (status 24 October 2026). Among plastic additives, PG7 belongs to the colorants, and it is one of the colorant pages in our database of plastic additives, each with the same identity, dosage and regulatory fields.

This page carries the identity data and the compliance record of PG7 in one place: the identifiers that separate it from chrome oxide green (PG17) and Pigment Green 36, the absorption mechanism behind the colour, the recorded properties, the dosing route through masterbatch, the 3 recorded applications, the 5 performance values a supplier has to state, the measured 13.6 to 22.3 % shrinkage increase in polypropylene, a 13-row regulatory matrix, the hazard record, the 3 alternative greens and the 3 recorded producers.

Table T1. Pigment Green 7 identity card.

Footnote: identity data from PubChem CID 169274 and ECHA CHEM; regulatory status 24 October 2026.

What Is Pigment Green 7 (Phthalocyanine Green)?#

Pigment Green 7 is copper phthalocyanine with 13 to 15 of its 16 ring hydrogen atoms replaced by chlorine, which is why its formula is written as a range, C32H3Cl13CuN8 to C32HCl15CuN8, rather than as one molecule. The parent ring, copper phthalocyanine (C32H16CuN8), is the molecule sold as phthalocyanine blue, and PG7 keeps only 1 to 3 of its hydrogen atoms. What does the chlorine change? It changes the colour, because chlorination shifts the phthalocyanine absorption from blue to green, and it changes the regulatory identity, because the chlorinated product carries its own CAS number (1328-53-6), its own EC number (215-524-7) and its own Colour Index constitution number (74260).

As a polycyclic pigment, PG7 belongs to the phthalocyanines, the class that accounts for about 25 % of all synthetic organic pigments and supplies both the standard blue (Pigment Blue 15) and the standard green of plastics colouring. The phthalocyanines sit with the quinacridones among the organic pigments for plastics, the colorant type that colours by absorption rather than by scattering.

What is the CAS number of Pigment Green 7?#

The CAS number of Pigment Green 7 is 1328-53-6; its EC number is 215-524-7 and its Colour Index constitution number is 74260. A data sheet that lists CAS 1308-38-9 under the name "pigment green" describes chrome oxide green, an inorganic pigment, and one that lists 14302-13-7 describes Pigment Green 36. The CAS number, not the colour name, is the field to check on a purchase order, a safety data sheet or a customs declaration.

Is phthalo green the same as Pigment Green 7?#

Yes, in most cases: "phthalo green" is the short form of phthalocyanine green, and the pigment behind it is usually Pigment Green 7. "Phthalo" is simply the first part of "phthalocyanine", the ring system on which both the blue and the green pigments are built, and "phthalocyanine green G" is a further synonym recorded for PG7. The qualifier that keeps the answer exact is the brominated variant: a paint or masterbatch sold as a yellow-shade phthalo green usually contains Pigment Green 36, so the C.I. name on the data sheet, not the shade name, is the reliable identifier.

The same short form applies to the blue, where phthalo blue means phthalocyanine blue. The unchlorinated parent pigment is Pigment Blue 15:3 (phthalocyanine blue), the beta crystal form of copper phthalocyanine.

What is C.I. 74260?#

C.I. 74260 is the Colour Index constitution number for polychloro copper phthalocyanine: it identifies the chemistry, while the generic name "C.I. Pigment Green 7" identifies the colour slot. The Colour Index lists over 27,000 products under about 13,000 C.I. Generic Names, is maintained by SDC Enterprises and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, and was first printed in 1924; how generic names and constitution numbers are assigned is explained under Colour Index (C.I.) pigment names. Brominated PG36 carries the neighbouring constitution number 74265 and the blue parent carries 74160, so the last three digits separate three members of one chemical family.

Is Pigment Green 7 the same as chrome oxide green (Pigment Green 17)?#

No: Pigment Green 7 is an organic pigment, chlorinated copper phthalocyanine (CAS 1328-53-6), while Pigment Green 17 is chrome oxide green, the inorganic chromium(III) oxide Cr2O3 (CAS 1308-38-9). At least one chemical seller ranking for "pigment green 7" describes it as chromium oxide green, so the CAS number, not the colour name, is the check to run before ordering. The three greens that share the name "pigment green" in catalogues are compared below.

The two pigments differ in more than class: Pigment Green 17 weighs 151.99 g/mol against 1092.7 g/mol for the C32HCl15CuN8 form of PG7, and it hides a substrate on its own where PG7 stays transparent. The opaque inorganic option, Cr2O3, is covered on chrome oxide green.

How Does Pigment Green 7 Colour a Polymer?#

Pigment Green 7 colours a polymer by selective absorption: the chlorinated phthalocyanine ring absorbs part of the visible spectrum, and the chlorine shifts that absorption so the light leaving the part reads as green rather than blue. Why is a PG7-coloured part transparent when a chrome-oxide-coloured part of a similar green is opaque? Organic pigments have a low refractive index, so they scatter little light, and in the 2023 International Journal of Molecular Sciences study of injection-moulded polypropylene the phthalocyanine masterbatch produced a transparent green while the chromium and copper oxide masterbatch produced an opaque one.

Absorption without scattering means colour without hiding power. How absorption, scattering and hiding power differ across the 9 colorant types is set out in colorants for plastics. Three practical consequences follow for a compounder, and they are listed below.

• Transparency: PG7 alone does not hide the substrate, so an opaque green needs titanium dioxide or an inorganic pigment alongside it.
• Insolubility: PG7 is a particle in the melt, not a dissolved dye, so dispersion quality decides colour strength and a speck-free surface.
• Class position: PG7 belongs with the polycyclic high-performance pigments, alongside the quinacridones, and not with inorganic oxides such as chromium(III) oxide.

No absorption maximum, hue angle or refractive-index value for PG7 is recorded in our knowledge base, so the mechanism stands here without numbers.

What Are the Physical and Chemical Properties of Pigment Green 7?#

Pigment Green 7 is a soft green powder that is insoluble in water, with a molecular weight of 1092.7 g/mol for the fully chlorinated C32HCl15CuN8 form and a chlorine content of roughly 45 to 49 % by mass across its chlorination range. The recorded properties, and the properties that only a supplier data sheet can supply, are listed in Table T2.

Table T2. Physical and chemical properties of Pigment Green 7.

Footnote: commercial PG7 is a mixture of chlorination degrees; values for the pure C32HCl15CuN8 end member are given where a single number is needed. The chlorine share is calculated from the formula: 45.0 % for C32H3Cl13CuN8 (1023.9 g/mol) and 48.7 % for C32HCl15CuN8 (1092.7 g/mol).

Seven of the 12 rows carry no value, and the gap is deliberate: the figures printed on seller product cards carry no primary source, so the table points to the supplier data sheet instead of repeating them. The 480 °C melting point published for phthalocyanine blue is not a PG7 value either, because chlorination changes the molecule and constants measured on the blue do not transfer to the green.

Which Polymers Use Pigment Green 7, and at What Dosage?#

Pigment Green 7 reaches a plastic part almost entirely through a green masterbatch, and the only PG7-related dosing range in our knowledge base is the 1 to 5 wt% masterbatch addition used in a 2023 polypropylene injection-moulding study. How much pigment is that in the part? The answer depends on the pigment loading of the masterbatch, which our record of the study does not include, so the arithmetic is shown with an illustrative loading in the let-down section below.

For organic pigments as a class, the ECHA plastic-additives mapping gives a typical concentration of about 2 wt%, a figure it also lists for the brominated sibling Pigment Green 36; ECHA records no separate PG7 value in our source set. Neither number is a PG7 recipe: the first is a masterbatch range from one study, the second a class value. Table T3 keeps the evidence for each polymer apart.

Table T3. Pigment Green 7 dosing by polymer.

Footnote: only the polypropylene row is a measured PG7-related range. The other rows are generic masterbatch practice or class values.

The same green part can be reached with very different concentrates, because masterbatch loading and let-down rate both vary. Carrier choice and pigment-loading conventions are explained under masterbatch.

Pigment Green 7 in polypropylene and polyethylene#

Polypropylene is the polymer with the best-documented PG7 behaviour, because phthalocyanine pigments nucleate PP and a transparent phthalocyanine green masterbatch raised the part's flow-direction shrinkage by 13.6 to 22.3 % in a 2023 study. Phthalocyanines are reported to nucleate polypropylene slightly more efficiently than quinacridones, a comparison from PP fibre work cited in the same paper, so the pigment acts on the crystallisation of the polymer as well as on its colour. The rest of the package a coloured PP part needs is in additives for polypropylene (PP).

Polyethylene carries the same risk in a narrower set of parts. Our colorants source set names injection-moulded HDPE crates, closures and caps alongside polypropylene ones as the articles where nucleating pigments cause shrinkage and warpage, but it records no PG7 dosage and no PE shrinkage figure. The measured PP result and its limits are set out in the warpage section below.

Pigment Green 7 in PVC and engineering plastics#

In PVC and in amorphous engineering plastics the nucleation question disappears, because these polymers do not crystallise the way polypropylene does, and what matters is that Pigment Green 7 stays an insoluble particle rather than dissolving into the matrix. Our knowledge base records no PG7 dosage, plate-out result, bleeding test or heat-stabilizer interaction in PVC, and no PG7 heat-stability limit for polyamide, polycarbonate or PET, so a processing-temperature ceiling for these polymers comes only from the supplier's data sheet. Any coloured food-contact article in these polymers still answers to the Annex II metal limits of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, which for a copper pigment means 5 mg/kg of copper in food. Stabilizer and plasticizer choices for coloured PVC are in additives for PVC.

From pigment to green masterbatch: the let-down math#

The PG7 content of a part is the pigment loading of the masterbatch multiplied by the masterbatch fraction in the blend: a green masterbatch holding 50 wt% pigment, let down at 1 % (99:1), puts 0.5 wt% Pigment Green 7 in the part, and the same masterbatch at 5 % (19:1) puts 2.5 wt% in it. The relationship fits on one line.

PG7 in part (wt%) = masterbatch pigment loading (wt%) x let-down fraction

The three let-down rates below span the usual 1 to 5 % window for a 50 wt% masterbatch.

The 50 wt% loading is an illustration inside the 40 to 65 wt% range typical of masterbatch, not a recorded PG7 product; colour masterbatches are formulated to a colour target, so real loadings vary. Colour masterbatch for pressure pipe, for comparison, is let down at 2 % (49:1) to 4 % (24:1), according to Ampacet. Run your own loading and dosing rate through the let-down ratio calculator.

What Is Pigment Green 7 Used For in Plastics?#

Pigment Green 7 is used in three plastics applications recorded in our knowledge base: green masterbatch, packaging and crates. The three applications are listed below in order of how directly they depend on PG7.

• Green masterbatch: the concentrate through which almost all PG7 reaches a moulder or extruder.
• Packaging: food and non-food containers, where the food-contact position of the pigment decides its use.
• Crates: large injection-moulded PP and HDPE parts, where nucleation turns into warpage.

Artists' paints, printing inks and coatings sit outside the plastics scope of this page and appear only below the contextual border.

Green masterbatch#

Green masterbatch is the main route by which Pigment Green 7 enters plastics, and it is the transparent option: in the 2023 polypropylene study the phthalocyanine-based concentrate gave transparent green parts where the chromium and copper oxide concentrate gave opaque ones. A colour concentrate, or color masterbatch, pre-disperses the pigment in a carrier resin at 40 to 65 wt%, so the converter doses granules at 1 to 5 % instead of handling a fine powder. Carrier, dispersant and pigment choices for a green concentrate follow the rules for color masterbatch.

Packaging#

Packaging is the application where the regulatory position of Pigment Green 7 matters most, because a green food container has to satisfy 21 CFR 178.3297 in the United States and the Annex II copper limit of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 in Europe. Both positions are set out in the regulatory section below. The full set of food-contact additive rules is compared in additives for food packaging.

Crates and other injection-moulded parts#

Crates are the application where Pigment Green 7 is most likely to change part dimensions, because large, flat injection-moulded parts in polypropylene or HDPE amplify the extra shrinkage a nucleating pigment causes. Our colorants source set names closures and caps alongside crates, and it names phthalocyanines and part of the quinacridone class as the nucleating pigments involved. It also names two remedies: a pigment grade sold as non-warping, or a surface-treated pigment. Which remedy fits a given tool is decided on moulded parts, not on colour chips. Machine-side remedies for shrinkage and warpage in injection moulding are collected under additives for injection molding.

How Does Pigment Green 7 Perform in Plastics?#

Five performance indicators decide whether a green pigment survives a plastics process and its service life: heat stability, lightfastness, weathering, migration resistance and dispersion, and for Pigment Green 7 our knowledge base holds measured data for none of the five, only for its effect on polypropylene shrinkage. Why no numbers? The values that circulate for PG7 online come from artists' colour charts and seller product cards without a primary source. Table T4 names each indicator, states what is recorded and lists what to request from the supplier.

Table T4. Pigment Green 7 performance indicators.

Footnote: "no value" means no primary-source figure is recorded in our knowledge base; we do not reprint unsourced seller or artists' figures.

The one measured row is the shrinkage row, and it describes an interaction with the polymer rather than a property of the pigment alone. How heat stability, lightfastness and weathering are tested and rated is explained under pigment fastness in plastics.

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

Five values decide a Pigment Green 7 purchase, and all five come from the supplier, since per-grade values are not published in a primary source: heat stability in your polymer, lightfastness with its scale, dispersion with its test method, the shrinkage behaviour in polypropylene, and the food-contact statement. The five checks for the supplier data sheet are listed below.

• Heat stability: temperature, dwell time, polymer and shade depth of the test.
• Lightfastness: the rating together with its scale.
• Dispersion: the method and the result.
• Nucleation: whether the grade is sold as non-warping in polypropylene.
• Compliance: the 21 CFR 178.3297 listing, a Resolution AP(89)1 purity statement and copper migration data.

Ask also which grade the data refers to, since commercial PG7 spans 13 to 15 chlorine atoms per molecule. Filter-pressure and microdispersion methods are described in dispersion testing of pigments and masterbatch.

Does Pigment Green 7 Warp Polypropylene Parts?#

Yes, it can: phthalocyanine pigments act as nucleating agents in polypropylene, and in the one study our knowledge base records, a transparent phthalocyanine green masterbatch raised the relative flow-direction shrinkage of injection-moulded PP by 13.6 to 22.3 % over 1 to 5 wt% masterbatch. A nucleating pigment gives the polymer more points at which crystals start to grow, so a nucleated polypropylene crystallises sooner and differently from an unpigmented one. Crystallisation sets shrinkage: the part shrinks more, and where shrinkage differs between the flow and the cross-flow direction, it distorts instead of contracting evenly. Why nucleating pigments distort flat moulded parts, and how moulders compensate, is covered under pigment-induced warpage. Our record of the study holds the flow-direction figure only, not the cross-flow values, so the anisotropy itself is described here without a number.

The comparison in the same study runs against intuition. The opaque masterbatch based mostly on chromium and copper oxides raised flow-direction shrinkage by 49.5 to 58.3 %, more than twice the 13.6 to 22.3 % of the phthalocyanine green masterbatch at both ends of the range, so switching from phthalocyanine green to an inorganic green did not remove the shrinkage problem in that study; it made it larger.

What did the 2023 polypropylene study measure?#

The 2023 International Journal of Molecular Sciences study measured the relative shrinkage of injection-moulded polypropylene in the flow direction against neat PP, for two green masterbatches dosed at 1 to 5 wt%, and found that shrinkage rose nearly linearly with masterbatch concentration. One masterbatch was based on organic phthalocyanine colorants and produced transparent green mouldings; the other was based mostly on inorganic chromium and copper oxides and produced opaque ones. Table T5 sets out the two results.

Table T5. Shrinkage of injection-moulded polypropylene with two green masterbatches.

The study describes the transparent masterbatch as based on organic phthalocyanine colorants; it does not state in our source set that Pigment Green 7 was the only pigment or how much pigment the masterbatch held. The figures therefore describe a phthalocyanine green masterbatch in polypropylene, not a dose-response curve for PG7 itself. Deliberate nucleation, and how it differs from pigment nucleation, is covered under nucleating agents for polypropylene.

How does Pigment Green 7 interact with titanium dioxide and UV stabilizers?#

Pigment Green 7 meets two partners in opaque and outdoor compounds: titanium dioxide, which supplies the opacity that a transparent organic pigment lacks, and the UV stabilizer package, because copper phthalocyanine pigments absorb UV strongly yet are reported to act as photoinitiators in their excited state. Opaque pastel greens combine PG7 with titanium dioxide (TiO2, Pigment White 6): the organic pigment sets the hue and the white pigment sets the hiding power. The TiO2 flocculation recorded for early alpha-form phthalocyanine blues is a property of the blue's crystal form, not a recorded PG7 effect.

The UV interaction cuts both ways, which is why copper phthalocyanines are listed among pigment and HALS (hindered amine light stabilizer) interactions. Our knowledge base records no HALS dosage and no measured interaction result for PG7, so an outdoor green compound is qualified by weathering the actual formulation.

What Is the Regulatory Status of Pigment Green 7?#

Pigment Green 7 is registered under REACH at 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year, is not a Substance of Very High Concern, is not restricted under REACH Annex XVII, is listed for food-contact polymers in 21 CFR 178.3297 without a numeric limit, and is not on the EU 10/2011 Union list because that list does not cover colorants (status 24 October 2026). The binding EU number sits elsewhere: Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 limits copper migration from the finished article to 5 mg/kg of food. Table T6 sets out the full matrix.

Table T6. Pigment Green 7 regulatory matrix, status 24 October 2026.

Footnote: knowledge-base checks of 22 to 25 September 2026; the three "being verified" rows are open items, never to be read as "not classified" or "not listed".

Two rows decide most compliance questions for a green part: the FDA listing without a numeric limit and the EU copper limit on the finished article. How these instruments fit together is mapped on plastic additive regulations.

Is Pigment Green 7 REACH registered, and is it an SVHC?#

Yes to the first and no to the second: Pigment Green 7 is registered under REACH in the 1,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year band, and it is absent from the 253-entry Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern, last updated on 4 February 2026. Phthalocyanine blue, the unchlorinated parent, is registered one band higher, at 10,000 to 100,000 tonnes a year. PG7 is also absent from Annex XIV, so no authorisation is needed for its use, and from Annex XVII, so no restriction entry limits it in articles. Every plastic additive that is on the SVHC Candidate List is grouped by function there; PG7 is not among them.

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

Yes, but not through the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011: colorants are outside it, so a green food-contact article is assessed under the framework Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, Council of Europe Resolution AP(89)1 and national rules. National rules include references such as Germany's BfR Recommendation IX, "Colorants for plastics". Annex II and the scope of the Union list are explained on EU 10/2011.

The number that binds sits in Annex II of the same regulation: copper is limited to 5 mg/kg of food from the finished article, and PG7 is a copper compound. The other Annex II limits cover aluminium (1 mg/kg), barium (1 mg/kg), cobalt (0.05 mg/kg), iron (48 mg/kg), lithium (0.6 mg/kg), manganese (0.6 mg/kg), zinc (5 mg/kg), nickel (0.02 mg/kg) and antimony (0.04 mg/kg), while arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury must not be detectable. The purity requirements for colorants are set out under Resolution AP(89)1.

Why has Pigment Green 7 no EU 10/2011 FCM number?#

Because the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 covers monomers, additives and polymer production aids, and colorants are left out of it, so no organic pigment, Pigment Green 7 included, has an FCM number. The apparent exceptions prove the rule: carbon black (FCM 411), titanium dioxide (FCM 610), zinc sulphide (FCM 403), iron oxide (FCM 409) and mica (FCM 597) are listed because they are also authorised as additives.

Is Pigment Green 7 FDA approved for food contact?#

Listed, not "approved": phthalocyanine green appears in 21 CFR 178.3297, the FDA's list of colorants for polymers, as C.I. Pigment Green 7 (C.I. 74260), without a numeric use limit. A colorant listing is one of the 5 FDA clearance routes, and which route covers each additive is tabulated under FDA food contact rules for plastic additives.

"No numeric limit" still means good manufacturing practice, at levels "not in excess of those reasonably required", and the section defines a colorant as a substance that imparts or alters colour without migrating visible colour to the food.

The contrast matters for substitution: the same section caps chromium oxide green at 5 % by weight of the polymer and Pigment Red 254, Pigment Brown 24 and Pigment Yellow 53 at 1 % under conditions of use B to H, and it does not list Pigment Green 36 at all. Every colorant listed in 21 CFR 178.3297, with its limit or the absence of one, is tabulated there.

Does the PPWR heavy-metal limit apply to Pigment Green 7?#

The PPWR limit applies to every packaging component, but it is not aimed at Pigment Green 7: Article 5(4) of Regulation (EU) 2025/40 caps the sum of lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium at 100 mg/kg from 12 August 2026, and none of the four is part of the PG7 molecule. The PG7 formula contains copper, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and chlorine only. Trace impurities are a separate matter: their level is not recorded in our knowledge base and comes from the supplier's analysis of the lot, so a green packaging component is checked against the 100 mg/kg sum as a whole, pigment and polymer together. The heavy-metal article and five other provisions that change packaging formulations are covered under the PPWR.

Is Pigment Green 7 Safe? Hazard Classification and Environmental Profile#

What our knowledge base records about Pigment Green 7 is its regulatory position, not a toxicological verdict: it is not a Substance of Very High Concern, it is not restricted under REACH Annex XVII, it is not listed under the Stockholm Convention, and the FDA lists it for food-contact polymers without a numeric limit. That record answers what the law asks of a PG7-coloured part, and it does not replace a hazard assessment. The three strands of the record are listed below.

• Classification: no CLP classification is recorded in our knowledge base yet; the field is being verified, and an empty field is not published as "not classified".
• Regulatory position: not on the Candidate List, not in Annex XIV or XVII, not a persistent organic pollutant under Regulation (EU) 2019/1021, and listed in 21 CFR 178.3297 without a numeric limit.
• Exposure route in a part: PG7 is insoluble and sits in the polymer as a particle, and the EU controls the route to the consumer at the finished article through the Annex II copper limit of 5 mg/kg of food.

Three questions remain open and are being checked against primary sources: the classification under the CLP Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, the status under the US Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and on the California Proposition 65 list, and unintended trace contaminants in chlorinated phthalocyanine pigments. Each will be added with its instrument and check date, and until then this page states neither a hazard nor its absence. How harmonised and notified classifications differ is explained under CLP classification of plastic additives.

What Are the Alternatives to Pigment Green 7?#

The three greens our knowledge base names as alternatives to Pigment Green 7 are Pigment Green 36, the brominated and yellower phthalocyanine green; chrome oxide green (Pigment Green 17), the opaque inorganic oxide; and cobalt titanate green (Pigment Green 50). The differentiator that orders them is organic against inorganic, which sets transparency against opacity: the organic phthalocyanines colour by absorption and stay transparent, while the inorganic oxides scatter light and hide the substrate. Table T7 compares the four greens on the fields our knowledge base holds.

Table T7. Green pigments for plastics compared, status 24 October 2026.

Footnote: empty cells mean the value is not in our knowledge base; we do not estimate. Opacity follows the 2023 polypropylene study (transparent phthalocyanine and opaque chromium and copper oxide masterbatches).

Chrome oxide green and cobalt titanate green are inorganic pigments, so a switch away from PG7 to either of them changes the look of the part as well as its compliance file. Two of the three alternatives belong to the inorganic pigments for plastics, which trade transparency for hiding power.

Pigment Green 7 vs Pigment Green 36#

Pigment Green 36 is the yellower phthalocyanine green: it carries bromine as well as chlorine on the copper phthalocyanine ring (C32Br6Cl10CuN8, 1393.9 g/mol, CAS 14302-13-7), and compounders reach for it when PG7 looks too blue. PG36 carries EC 238-238-4 and C.I. 74265, it is not on the Candidate List and not in Annex I of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, and the ECHA plastic-additives mapping gives it a typical concentration of 2 wt% across polyolefins, PVC, ABS, PET, PMMA, PA, PC and PS.

The regulatory difference matters more than the shade. 21 CFR 178.3297 lists PG7 and does not list PG36, so a US food-contact green built on PG36 needs another clearance route, and ECHA CHEM shows PG36 as "ceased manufacture" under CAS 14302-13-7. Neither fact is a restriction, so PG36 is not a banned substance. Identity, ECHA status and mapping data for the brominated sibling are on Pigment Green 36 (yellowish phthalocyanine green).

Pigment Green 7 vs chrome oxide green (PG17)#

Pigment Green 7 is the choice when the green must stay transparent or bright; chrome oxide green is the choice when the part must be opaque, because Cr2O3 is an inorganic oxide that hides the substrate on its own. Chrome oxide green is an olive green recorded with high heat, light and chemical stability, registered under REACH at 10,000 to 100,000 tonnes a year and listed in 21 CFR 178.3297 with a ceiling of 5 % of the polymer, against no numeric limit for PG7. In the EU, chromium must not be detectable in migration from the finished article, while PG7 answers to the 5 mg/kg copper limit. The shrinkage comparison from the 2023 polypropylene study, set out above, also favours PG7. The opacity, heat and chemical stability case is made on chrome oxide green (PG17).

Pigment Green 7 vs cobalt titanate green (PG50)#

Cobalt titanate green (Pigment Green 50) is the third alternative our knowledge base names for Pigment Green 7, and it is the one we cannot yet compare on data: no CAS, tonnage or food-contact record for it is in our source set. One rule applies regardless of grade: Annex II of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 limits cobalt migration from a finished food-contact article to 0.05 mg/kg of food, a limit 100 times tighter than the 5 mg/kg copper limit that governs PG7. Mixed-metal-oxide greens of this kind are complex inorganic colour pigments, and cobalt titanate green belongs to the complex inorganic color pigments (CICP), the mixed-metal-oxide class.

Who Manufactures Pigment Green 7? Grades and Suppliers#

Our knowledge base records three producers of Pigment Green 7: Sun Chemical, DIC and Sudarshan, the Indian pigment maker that completed its acquisition of Heubach on 3 March 2025. DIC and Sun Chemical share one row in our company table, and DIC completed its purchase of BASF's Colors & Effects pigments business in 2021, a deal agreed in 2019 at EUR 1.15 billion. No grade name for PG7 is recorded for any of the three, so this page names companies, not products. The full directory of pigment manufacturers and suppliers for plastics compares the organic and inorganic producers. The three producers and what is recorded for each are listed in Table T8.

Table T8. Recorded producers of Pigment Green 7.

Footnote: we list a company only where our knowledge base records it. The Sudarshan brands are company pigment brands, not verified PG7 grade names; grade names are being verified against manufacturer catalogues, see our methodology.

Buyers should ask for the technical data sheet with heat stability in the target polymer, the lightfastness rating and scale, the dispersion result, a statement on non-warping behaviour in polypropylene, and a food-contact statement naming 21 CFR 178.3297 and Resolution AP(89)1. No price is published here: our source library holds no verified price series for Pigment Green 7, and a quote depends on product form, grade and volume.

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

Pigment Green 7 is the green member of the phthalocyanine class, which accounts for about 25 % of all synthetic organic pigments and supplies the blue (Pigment Blue 15) and, with chlorine or bromine added, the greens PG7 and PG36. The colorant family around it is large: pigments make up 127 of the roughly 418 high-tonnage substances in the ECHA plastic-additives mapping, about 30 %. The other eight colorant types, from inorganic oxides to optical brighteners, are compared on the hub for plastic colorants.

Chlorine in the molecule: what it means for halogen-free and recycled compounds#

Pigment Green 7 is a chlorinated organic substance, roughly 45 to 49 % chlorine by mass according to its formula, so a compound coloured with it is not halogen-free by composition, however small the pigment loading. At 0.5 wt% PG7 in a part, the chlorine carried by the pigment works out at roughly 0.22 to 0.24 wt% of the part (calculated: 0.5 x 0.450 and 0.5 x 0.487).

No halogen-free threshold for electrical or electronic compounds is verified in our knowledge base, so whether that amount breaks a given specification is not stated here. Our source library also records no study on PG7 in mechanical recycling, beyond the general point that pigment nucleation acts on recycled polypropylene as it does on virgin resin. How colour and additive choices affect sorting and recyclate quality is covered under design for recycling.

Phthalocyanine green outside plastics: artists' paint, inks and coatings#

Most searches for "phthalocyanine green" come from painters, because the same pigment colours artists' oils, acrylics and watercolours, printing inks and industrial coatings, and those uses sit outside this site's plastics scope. Shade names such as "blue shade" and "yellow shade", lightfastness ratings for paint and colour-mixing advice are therefore not covered here. Questions that belong to the artists' world, such as whether a branded paint colour is the same pigment, are answered by paint makers rather than by a plastics reference, and this page keeps to the polymer.

What is the blue version of phthalo green?#

The blue version of phthalo green is phthalocyanine blue, Pigment Blue 15 (CAS 147-14-8): the same copper phthalocyanine ring without the chlorine, C32H16CuN8 instead of C32HCl15CuN8. Its Colour Index constitution number, 74160, sits next to the 74260 of PG7. Crystal forms, dosage and regulation of the blue are on phthalocyanine blue.

What is green pigment made of?#

In plastics, green pigment is made of one of two chemistries: an organic copper phthalocyanine carrying chlorine (Pigment Green 7) or chlorine and bromine (Pigment Green 36), or an inorganic metal oxide such as chromium(III) oxide, Cr2O3 (Pigment Green 17). Pigment Green 7 itself is made of five elements, copper, carbon, nitrogen, chlorine and a little hydrogen, in proportions that run from C32H3Cl13CuN8 to C32HCl15CuN8. The copper sits at the centre of the ring, and the chlorine atoms that replace its hydrogen atoms turn the blue parent into a green.

Where can I buy Pigment Green 7 and green masterbatch?#

Pigment Green 7 is bought as a powder or pigment preparation from producers such as Sun Chemical, DIC and Sudarshan, while most converters buy it ready-dispersed in a green masterbatch. Converters who want PG7 pre-dispersed can compare color masterbatch manufacturers on 8 specification checks, and powder buyers can reach the producers through the supplier finder above.