Patent ID: 7658792

Claim:
An IR-absorbing naphthalocyanine dye of formula (I): wherein M is Ga(A 1 ); A 1 is an axial ligand selected from the group consisting of: —OH, halogen, —OR 3 , —OC(O)R 4 and —O(CH 2 CH 2 O) e R e wherein e is an integer from 2 to 10 and R e is H, C 1-8 alkyl or C(O)C 1-8 alkyl; R 1 and R 2 may be the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of: hydrogen and C 1-12 alkoxy; R 3 is selected from the group consisting of: C 1-12 alkyl, C 5-12 aryl, C 5-12 arylalkyl and Si(R x )(R y )(R z ); R 4 is selected from the group consisting of: C 1-12 alkyl, C 5-12 aryl and C 5-12 arylalkyl; R x , R y and R z may be the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of: C 1-12 alkyl, C 5-12 aryl, C 5-12 arylalkyl, C 1-12 alkoxy, C 5-12 aryloxy and C 5-12 arylalkoxy; and each B is independently a base, wherein BH + has a pK a of between 4 and 9.