Infra-red photoconductor based on octa-substituted phthalocyanines

Claim 2

A photoconductor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the octa-substituted phthalocyanine has the formula: wherein M comprises 2H, zinc, copper, magnesium, iron, lead, manganese, chromium, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, zirconium, titanium, chloroindium, chlorogallium, bromoindium, or bromogallium; R comprises a straight or branched alkyl group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms or a carboxy group having from 2 to 10 carbon atoms.

Claim 3

A photoconductor as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the charge generation layer further comprises a binder, and wherein a ratio of pigment:binder ranges from about 4:1 to about 1:100 by weight of the charge generation layer; or a ratio of pigment:binder ranges from about 1:4 to about 2:1 by weight of the charge generation layer; or a ratio of pigment:binder ranges from about 1:1 to about 2:3 by weight of the charge generation layer.

Claim 4

A photoconductor as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the octa-substituted phthalocyanine comprises 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25-octa-n-butoxyphthalocyanine; 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25-octa-n-methoxyphthalocyanine; 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25-octa-n-ethoxyphthalocyanine; 1, 4, 8,11, 15, 18,22, 25-octa-n-pentoxy phthalocyanine or 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25-octa-n-propoxyphthalocyanine.

Claim 5

A photoconductor of claim 1, further comprising a substrate, a charge blocking layer and an adhesive layer between the charge blocking layer and the charge generation layer.

Claim 6

A photoconductor as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the charge generation layer contains from about 20% by volume to about 90% by volume of the octa-substituted phthalocyanine, or wherein the charge generation layer contains from about 35% by volume to about 75% by volume of the octa-substituted phthalocyanine.

Claim 7

A photoconductor comprising a substrate, a charge blocking layer, a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer, wherein the charge generation layer comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of a 2H centered octa-substituted phthalocyanine, a metal centered octa-substituted phthalocyanine and a metal-halide centered octa-substituted phthalocyanine, wherein substituents on exterior rings of the phthalocyanine are para to each other.

Claim 8

The photoconductor of claim 1, further comprising at least one unsubstituted phthalocyanine selected from the group consisting of 2H(metal-free)-phthalocyanine, titanium oxy-phthalocyanine, vanadium oxy-phthalocyanine, aluminum phthalocyanine, aluminum polycholorphthalocyanine, barium phthalocyanine, beryllium phthalocyanine, cadmium phthalocyanine, calcium phthalocyanine, cerium phthalocyanine, chromium phthalocyanine, cobalt phthalocyanine, cobalt chlorophthalocyanine, copper bromophthalocyanine, copper 4-chlorophthalocyanine and copper phthalocyanine.

Claim 9

The photoconductor of claim 8, wherein the ratio of octa-substituted phthalocyanine: unsubstituted phthalocyanine ranges from about 1:10 to about 1:1.