An integrated design strategy of zinc phthalocyanine dyes for LCD dye-based color filters

Currently, dyes are alternative colorants to traditional pigments in color filters (CFs) of thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD). However, the inferior thermal stability remains an unaddressed issue despite their promising applications. Herein, a series of novel zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) dyes with different substituent effects were designed and synthesized. The substituent effects on its optical properties, photo-thermal stabilities and solubility were systematically investigated. Among the newly prepared ZnPc dyes, 3-B4, which contains multiple chlorine atoms and bulky substituents decorated with two methoxy groups, showed the best performance in thermal stability and solubility tests. Furthermore, the color films fabricated by using 3-B4 also displayed the highest photo-thermal stability under simulated industrial manufacturing processes. It indicated the feasibility of 3-B4 as colorants for dye-based CFs. We hope that our design strategy for ZnPc dyes is meaningful for exploring dye-based CFs. [Display omitted] •A zinc phthalocyanine dye 3-B4 could be a colorant's candidate for dye-based color filters.