JP2002138225A - Ink for ink jet recording and image receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To produce an ink for ink jet recording or an image receiver, which gives a printed matter having good resistance to light. SOLUTION: An anti-oxidizing compound, such as rosemary acid contained in an extract of rosemary, is incorporated into an ink for ink jet recording or an image receiver.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an ink jet ink and an image receiving member for receiving the ink.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Printing by an ink jet system is well known. As the ink-jet ink, one obtained by adding a colorant and various auxiliaries to water or an aqueous solvent mainly composed of water is used. As the colorant, any of dyes and pigments can be used, but dyes are mainly used because they are easy to prepare and have good storage stability. Further, as an image receiving body for receiving ink, an image receiving layer mainly composed of a water-soluble polymer formed on a surface of paper or a synthetic resin film is mainly used. This image receiving layer often contains a white pigment, such as kaolin, talc, clay, light calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, barium sulfate, titanium dioxide, alumina, silica or other inorganic pigments, and polystyrene. It is known that resins, melamine resins, urea resins, acrylic resins and other organic pigments can be used. It is also known to use polyvinyl alcohol, polyacrylamide, polyvinylpyrrolidone, a cellulose-based water-soluble compound, starch and the like as the water-soluble polymer.

[0003]

One of the problems of printing by the ink-jet method is that printed matter produced by this method generally has poor light fastness and tends to fade during storage. This phenomenon is particularly remarkable when printing is performed with an ink using a dye as a colorant. As countermeasures against this, JP-A-63-128085 and JP-A-6-23
No. 4945 describes that a water-soluble phenol compound having an antioxidant ability is added to ink.
EP 957970 A1 describes that a water-soluble hydroquinone derivative is added to an ink-receiving side of an image receiving member instead of adding a compound having an antioxidant ability to the ink.

[0004] However, since many of these conventionally proposed additives have a strong irritating property, it is never preferable to include them in inks or image receiving bodies which are directly touched by ordinary people. In addition, printed materials using these inks and image receiving bodies have a problem that an image is likely to be whitened during storage. This whitening of the image is particularly problematic when the image receiving body is transparent like an OHP sheet. Therefore, the present invention
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet ink and an image receiving member which do not have these problems and provide a printed matter having excellent light fastness.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an antioxidant selected from the group consisting of rosmarinic acid, carnosolic acid, carnosol, rosmanol, epirosmanol, isolosmanol, rosmaridiphenol, rosmariquinone and hesperidin. By including the compound in the ink or the image receiving member used in the ink jet method, the light resistance of a printed matter prepared using the compound can be improved. These antioxidant compounds are included in rosemary extract, and are known as compounds that exhibit antioxidant ability in this extract. Therefore, in the present invention, the rosemary extract itself can be used as the above-mentioned antioxidant compound.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the present invention, one of the following antioxidant compounds is contained in an ink or an image receiving member in order to improve the light fastness of a printed matter prepared by an ink jet method.

[0007]

Embedded image

[0008]

Embedded image

[0009] These antioxidant compounds are contained in the extract of rosemary, a kind of Labiatae herb,
This extract is known as a compound that expresses antioxidant ability. Therefore, in the present invention, it is preferable to use a readily available rosemary extract containing these as the above-mentioned antioxidant compounds. Rosemary extract is a safe natural antioxidant that has been used exclusively as a food additive in the past, and is also available on the market.However, it must be prepared by extracting from rosemary with water or aqueous alcohol. Can also. When extraction is carried out with hydroalcoholic alcohol, water-insoluble components are also extracted. Therefore, when added to ink using water as a solvent, it is preferable to remove the water-insoluble components from the extract before use. When the extract is colored, it is preferable to use the extract after decolorizing by treating with an adsorbent.

When an antioxidant compound is contained in the ink according to the present invention, for example, in the case of a rosemary extract, it is preferably added to the ink in an amount of 0.1 to 20% by weight in the ink. The ink may be of any known composition. As a solvent occupying most of the ink, water or a mixture of water and a water-soluble organic solvent is usually used. Examples of the water-soluble organic solvent used in combination with water include ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, butylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol (# 200), and polyethylene glycol (# 40).
0), glycerin, N-methylpyrrolidone, N-ethylpyrrolidone, 1,3-dimethylimidazolidinone, thiodiethanol, dimethylsulfoxide, ethylene glycol monoallyl ether, ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, diethylene glycol monomethyl ether, 2-pyrrolidone, sulfolane ,Ethyl alcohol,
Isopropyl alcohol and the like. It is also preferable that the ink contains an auxiliary agent such as urea, thiourea, biuret, and semicarbazide, and a surfactant.
Auxiliary agents such as urea are contained in the ink in an amount of 0.1 to 10% by weight,
Preferably, the surfactant is contained in an amount of about 8% by weight, and the surfactant is preferably contained in an amount of 0.001 to 5% by weight. When these additives are contained in the ink, quick drying after printing and printing quality can be improved. Both dyes and pigments are used as the colorant for the ink. In the present invention, it is particularly preferable to use the dye. This is because a printed matter printed with an ink containing a dye as a coloring agent generally has poor light resistance, so that the effects of the present invention are remarkably exhibited. As the dye, for example, a monoazo, disazo or polyazo dye, a reactive dye, a triphenylmethane dye, a xanthene dye and the like are used. Some examples are Food Black 2, C.I. I. Direct Black 19, C.I. I. Sulfur Black 1, Acid Red 35, Acid Red 14, Acid Red 52, Acid Yellow 17, Acid Yellow 23, Direct Black 38, Direct Black 168, Acid Red 249, Direct Red 227, Direct Yellow 86, Direct Yellow 132, Acid Blue 9, Direct Blue 86, Direct Blue 199, Reactive Red 2
4, Reactive Red 40, Reactive Red 15
9 and the like.

In order to incorporate an antioxidant compound into an image receiving layer of an image receiving body according to the present invention, a coating solution containing an antioxidant compound in a coating solution for forming an image receiving layer is prepared by a conventional method using an image receiving substrate. It may be applied on top and dried. When rosemary extract is used as the antioxidant compound, it is used in such a manner that its content in the finally formed image receiving layer is 0.1 to 40% by weight. It is preferable to use 5 to 30% by weight. Incidentally, as the image receiving substrate, it is possible to use a conventional one such as paper or a synthetic resin film, but a transparent or light-transmitting one, for example, a film of polyester such as polyethylene terephthalate, polyimide, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene or the like. It is preferably used. Among these, a polyethylene terephthalate film is particularly preferred. Printed matter obtained by printing the image receiving body containing the antioxidant compound in the image receiving layer according to the present invention by an ink jet method has a very small tendency to whiten during storage, and thus the printed matter is whitened even when the image receiving body is transparent. There is no deterioration in the quality of the product. As the coating solution for forming the image receiving layer, a solution obtained by adding a hydrophilic resin, a filler and various auxiliaries to a solvent is usually used. As the hydrophilic resin, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetal, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, polyamide, polyoxazoline, polyvinylamine, polyethyleneimine, hydroxypropylcellulose, ethylcellulose, polyamide epoxy, polyester polyurethane, polyether polyurethane, etc. are used. Can be As the filler, inorganic particles such as silica, alumina, and zirconia, and resin particles such as an acrylic resin, a urea resin, and a benzoguanamine resin are used. Also,
By coating a solution containing a rosemary extract on ready-made ink jet recording paper or so-called plain paper, the ink jet receiver having an image receiving layer containing an antioxidant compound according to the present invention on the surface thereof is provided. It can also be.

[0012]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the following examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples. Example 1 5.52 g of gelatin and 2.76 g of polyvinylpyrrolidone were dissolved in 100 mL of ion-exchanged water. To 50 mL of this solution, add rosemary extract (RM-21Abas).
e, a product of Mitsubishi Chemical Foods Co., Ltd.) and added and dissolved to prepare a coating solution for forming an image receiving layer. This coating solution was applied to a resin-coated paper so as to have a liquid film thickness of 10 μm, and then dried at room temperature for one day to prepare an image-receiving body having a transparent image-receiving layer on the resin-coated paper.

Printing was performed on the image receiver using a Deskjet 505C ink jet printer manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Company. Epson PM as ink
The magenta ink extracted from the -700C printer ink cartridge was used. The light fastness of the solid printed portion of the obtained printed matter was evaluated using an ATLAS light fastness tester. Light irradiation conditions are 0.55 w / m ² , a black panel temperature of 63 ° C., a humidity of 50%, and an irradiation time of 27 hours. Table 1 shows the results.

Comparative Example 1 An image receiving member was prepared in exactly the same manner as in Example 1 except that a solution obtained by dissolving 5.52 g of gelatin and 2.76 g of polyvinylpyrrolidone in 100 mL of ion-exchanged water was used as a coating solution for forming an image receiving layer. Preparation, printing and light fastness tests were performed. Table 1 shows the results.

[0015]

[Table 1]

Example 2 5.52 g of gelatin and 2.76 g of polyvinylpyrrolidone were dissolved in 100 mL of ion-exchanged water. 0.48 g of a surfactant (Dynol 607, manufactured by Air Products) was further added thereto, followed by stirring and filtration to remove insolubles. The filtrate was divided into two equal parts, and 1.125 g of a rosemary extract (RM21Abase) was added to one side, and 1.125 g of potassium hydroquinonesulfonate was added to the other side and dissolved. Each solution was applied on a polyester film using a No. 24 bar coater, and then dried naturally. When the visible light transmittance of the obtained film was measured, the transmittance of the film having an image receiving layer containing a rosemary extract was 85%. On the other hand, those having the image receiving layer containing potassium hydroquinone sulfonate had a transmittance of 75%, and those having the image receiving layer containing the rosemary extract had higher transparency.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Hirotane Kido 1000 Kamotodacho, Aoba-ku, Aoba-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Yokohama Research Laboratory F-term (reference) 2C056 EA13 FC02 FC06 2H086 BA15 BA31 BA52 BA53 BA55 BA59 4J039 BC07 BC12 BC16 BC19 BC20 BC29 BC31 BC39 BC65 BC68 BC69 BC73 BC74 BC75 BE03 BE04 BE33 EA35 EA44 EA45 GA24

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A colorant and an antioxidant compound selected from the group consisting of rosmarinic acid, carnosolic acid, carnosol, rosmanol, epirosmanol, isolosmanol, rosmaridiphenol, rosmariquinone and hesperidin. Inkjet ink. 2. An ink jet ink comprising a colorant and a rosemary extract. 3. The ink-jet ink according to claim 1, wherein the colorant is a dye. 4. An image receiving layer containing an antioxidant compound selected from the group consisting of rosmarinic acid, carnosolic acid, carnosol, rosmanol, epirosmanol, isolosmanol, rosmaridiphenol, rosmariquinone and hesperidin on the surface. An image receiving body for ink jet, characterized in that: 5. An ink jet image receiving body having an image receiving layer containing a rosemary extract on a surface thereof. 6. The ink jet image receiver according to claim 4, wherein the image receiver is transparent.