Ink jet recording medium

#The present invention relates generally to the field of imaging or recording using ink jet printers, and particularly, pertains to ink jet imaging media and to the imaged media produced after printing on media with an ink jet printer. More specifically, this invention pertains to ink jet imaging media and to the imaged ink jet media comprising additives to improve the archival properties of the ink jet media after imaging. This invention also pertains to methods of preparing such ink jet imaging media and such imaged ink jet media.

#Throughout this application, various patents are referred to by an identifying citation. The disclosures of the patents referenced in this application are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.

#As color digital imaging with various types of printers has gained increasing commercial acceptance, ink jet printing has surpassed sublimation type thermal transfer printing as the most accepted method for color digital printing. Where photographic quality, as exemplified by silver halide color photography, or close to photographic quality, is desired in the color digital printing, the ink jet imaging media typically utilize an inorganic porous layer or a swellable organic polymer layer as the recording or imaging layer. Such an imaging media having an inorganic porous layer are excellent in ink jet ink absorptivity and drying speed and also in the property of fixing or complexing the colorants to provide high resolution images. An example of such an ink jet imaging media is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,730 to Misuda et al., where the inorganic porous layer is made mainly of psuedo boehmite, a type of alumina hydrate. However, ink jet imaging media with an inorganic porous layer as a recording layer have disadvantages in that during the storage after printing, and especially when exposed to light from various sources, the images on the media tend to fade and also the background or non-imaged areas may tend to develop some coloration, especially along the edges of the media.

#Several embodiments of the present invention are described in the following examples, which are offered by way of illustration and not by way of limitation.

#A porous layer of pseudo boehmite with polyvinyl alcohol binder present was prepared according to the following procedure. A coating mixture with a solids content of about 15.4% comprising 14 weight percent (solid content) of boehmite sol and 1.4 weight percent (solid content) of a polyvinyl alcohol polymer in water was prepared. This coating solution was coated on a polyester (polyethylene terephthalate) substrate of 125 microns in thickness using a gap coater so that the coating amount after drying at 140° C. for 5 minutes was 25 g/m2, to form a porous pseudo boehmite layer of about 25 microns in thickness. The porous layer with a porosity of about 60% was impregnated with a 0.05 weight percent solution of equal amounts of IR-99, aminium radical cation compound I, and its corresponding arylamine compound III in 2-butanone using a #3 wire wound rod followed by drying at room temperature. The combined weight of the aminium radical cation I and the arylamine compound III in the pseudo boehmite layer was 0.025 g/m2. This equates to 0.1 weight percent of the weight of the porous pseudo boehmite layer.

#The porous pseudo boehmite layer was prepared as described in Example 1. The porous layer was impregnated with a 0.05 weight percent solution of equal amounts of IR-126, aminium radical cation compound II, and its corresponding arylamine compound IV in 2-butanone using a #3 wire wound rod followed by drying at room temperature. The combined weight of the aminium radical cation II and the arylamine compound IV in the pseudo boehmite layer was 0.025 g/m2. This equates to 0.1 weight percent of the weight of the porous pseudo boehmite layer.