Black-and-white thermographic materials with improved image tone
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsJoe Maskasky, Victor Scaccia
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Direct thermographic materials are designed to have image tone with near neutral density. Besides a non-photosensitive source of reducible silver ions and black-and-white silver ion reducing agent, the materials also include a color developing agent precursor that releases a color developing agent when heated to a temperature of at least 80° C., and a cyan dye-forming color coupler that is capable of reacting with the released color developing agent to produce a cyan dye. Alternatively, the material can have a combination of cyan and magenta dye-forming color couplers. These components provide a means for controlling image tone without reliance solely upon conventional toning agents.
Claims22
A black-and-white thermographic material comprising a support having thereon at least one thermally sensitive imaging layer comprising a binder, and further comprising:
- a) a non-photosensitive source of reducible silver ions,
- b) a reducing agent for said reducible silver ions,
- c) a color developing agent precursor that releases a color developing agent when heated to a temperature of at least 80° C., and
- d) a cyan dye-forming color coupler, or a combination of a cyan dye-forming color coupler and a magenta dye-forming color coupler, said color couplers being capable of reacting with said released color developing agent to produce a cyan dye or a combination of cyan and magenta dyes.
A black-and-white, non-photosensitive thermographic material that comprises a transparent polymer support having on only one side thereof one or more thermally sensitive imaging layers and an outermost non-thermally sensitive protective layer over said one or more thermally sensitive imaging layers,
- said one or more thermally sensitive imaging layers comprising one or more hydrophilic binders, and in reactive association:
- a) a non-photosensitive source of reducible silver ions that includes one or more silver aliphatic carboxylates at least one of which is silver behenate,
- b) a reducing agent for said non-photosensitive source reducible silver ions comprising a dihydroxybenzene or an aminophenol,
- c) a color developing agent precursor that releases a p-phenylenediamine color developing agent when heated to a temperature of at least 80° C., and
- d) a toning agent, and
- e) a cyan dye-forming color coupler that is capable of reacting with said released color developing agent to produce a cyan dye, said cyan dye-forming color coupler being present in an amount from 0.005 to 0.1 mole per mole of reducible silver ions, and the amount of silver is at least 0.002 mol/m2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.