JP2961572B2 - Photosensitive and heat-sensitive image recording material and image forming method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a novel light- and heat-sensitive image recording material using a light- and heat-sensitive image forming material and a method for forming an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for obtaining an image, particularly a high-quality color image by a simple and dry process, a method using a photothermographic material or a thermal transfer material is known.

[0003] An image forming method using a photothermographic material is described in, for example, Research Disclosure (RD) 29996 and The Photographic Society of Japan, Vol. 51, No. 4, p. 269 (1988). A monochrome or color image is formed on the image receiving sheet by forming a monochrome or color image with a dye or a dye, or transferring the dye formed or released by development. As a method of obtaining a clear color image, a method of transferring a dye is excellent,
Since the structure of the photosensitive material and the structure of the dye-forming compound become complicated, the material cost tends to increase. On the other hand, as a method of forming an image by transferring a dye, a heat-sensitive transfer material is known, and is described in, for example, RD32019. The heat-sensitive transfer material is excellent in that an image can be formed by a simple method, but has a problem that a high-resolution image cannot be recorded at high speed because of low resolution and sensitivity. Therefore, there is a demand for the development of a new image forming method for recording a high-quality image at high speed by dry processing.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel image recording material and an image forming method capable of obtaining a high-resolution and clear color image by dry processing.

[0005]

The object of the present invention is to provide a photosensitive and heat-sensitive image recording material having a precursor of an organic infrared absorbing dye and a heat diffusible dye on a support, and to expose the image recording material imagewise. This is achieved by an image forming method in which, after forming an infrared-absorbing dye image, the image is superposed on the image-receiving material, uniformly exposed, and the dye is transferred image-wise to the image-receiving material by heat generated imagewise.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail.

The precursor of the organic infrared absorbing dye used in the present invention becomes an infrared absorbing dye upon irradiation with ultraviolet light,
Any material may be used as long as it generates heat by the next uniform exposure and causes transfer of the heat diffusible dye. As a precursor of such an organic infrared absorbing dye, a compound exhibiting photochromism can be given. Specific examples include azobenzene, stilbene, spiropyran, spirothiopyran, spirooxazine, fulgide, and diarylethene. Of these, diallylethenes, fulgides, spiropyrans, and spirothiopyrans having sufficient absorption in the infrared region are preferable.

As typical compounds, the diallylethenes described in J. Org. Chem., Vol. 53, p. 803, and fulgides in Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 61, 3569 (1988) and J. Chem. Soc. .,
Perkin Trans. 1 (1981) p. 202. Spiropyrans and spirothiopyrans include Techniques of Chemistry Vo
l. III, Photochromism (1971) and Chem. Lett., 1985, 180
Compounds described on page 5.
Polymer binders described on page 929 of 32019 can be used. The amount of the binder added is 0.1 per m ² of the support.
-20 g is preferred.

As thermal diffusible dyes, JP-A-60-27594,
No. 60-31563, No. 60-53564, No. 60-131293, No. 60-23
9289, 61-35994, 61-227091, 61-227092
No., No. 61-268494, No. 61-268495, No. 62-87393, No.
62-99195, 62-294593, 63-15790, 63-7468
No. 5, 63-142062, 63-182163, 63-205288
No. 64-63194, JP-A-1-263092, 2-3450,
The dyes described in JP-A No. 2-155693 and RD32019, pages 932 to 939 can be used. Further, in order to improve the stability of the image, especially the fixing property, JP-A-59-78893, page 3, JP-A-60-239
It is preferable to use a chelatable dye described in No. 8, pages 2 to 5. Particularly preferred chelatable dyes are 3
It is a dye capable of chelating coordination, and a dye represented by the general formula (1) is preferably used.

[0010]

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In the formula, X ₁ has at least one ring of 5 to 7
Represents a group of atoms necessary to complete a carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring composed of a plurality of atoms, and a carbon atom in which at least one of the adjacent positions of the carbon atom bonded to the azo bond is substituted with a nitrogen atom or a chelating group. X ₂ represents a heterocyclic ring or a carbocyclic ring in which at least one ring is composed of 5 to 7 atoms, and G represents a chelating group.

[0012] The content of the dye, the support 1m ² per 0.05
10 g is preferred. The photosensitive and heat-sensitive layer containing these compounds constituting the present invention may be, for example, two layers of a layer made of a precursor of an infrared-absorbing dye and a layer made of a heat-diffusible dye and a binder, even if all are added to the same layer. The thermal diffusible dye may be at least the same layer as the layer made of the infrared absorbing dye precursor or the upper layer of the layer made of the infrared absorbing dye precursor (a layer far from the support). ) Is preferable, and it is more preferable that all of them are added to the same layer for higher sensitivity.

In addition to the compound-containing layer of the present invention, an undercoat layer may be provided for the purpose of improving the adhesiveness between the layer and the support or preventing the dye from diffusing toward the support.

As the support used in the present invention, a transparent plastic film support can be used.
As a specific example, the support described in RD32019, p.929 can be used. The thickness of the support is preferably 3 to 200 μm.

The light- and heat-sensitive image recording material of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "the heat-sensitive image recording material")
Additives such as antifoggants (for example, RD29963 and the compounds described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,141) and thermal solvents (for example, RD29963) are added to the recording material of the present invention.

The image forming method of the present invention will be described.
The light and heat sensitive image recording material of the present invention is exposed according to image information. As the exposure light source used, a mercury lamp, a metal halogen lamp, or the like can be used. From these light sources, ultraviolet rays are guided using an optical fiber and exposed, or a separately prepared mask image is brought into close contact with the exposed surface to uniformly emit ultraviolet light. Exposure forms an infrared dye image. The exposed material of the present invention forms an infrared-absorbing dye imagewise by photochromism, so that high resolution (high recording density) can be obtained without a problem of heat diffusion as compared with a system which is transferred by direct exposure. Next, when the exposed heat-diffusible dye-containing layer of the present invention and the image-receiving layer of the image-receiving sheet are overlapped and uniformly exposed from the support side of the material of the present invention, the portion where the infrared-absorbing dye is formed absorbs light. The heat-diffusible dye-containing layer is heated according to the generated infrared-absorbing dye, and the dye is transferred to the image receiving layer according to the image information to form an image.

In order to form a full-color image in the present invention, a recording material having a yellow light- and heat-sensitive layer containing a heat-diffusable yellow dye and a recording material having a magenta light-and-heat-sensitive layer containing a heat-diffusible magenta dye A recording material having a cyan photosensitive and heat-sensitive layer containing a heat-diffusible cyan dye may be used. Alternatively, a recording material in which the above three layers are formed on the same support in a sequential manner may be used. Also, by adding three heat diffusible dyes of yellow, magenta and cyan to the same photosensitive and heat-sensitive layer,
It is also possible to obtain a recording material for forming a monochrome image.

The image receiving material which can be used for image formation of the present invention comprises an image receiving layer provided on a support. The materials described in RD32019, pp. 930 can be used as the material for the support of the image receiving material and the image receiving layer. When the aforementioned chelatable dye is used as the dye, a metal source for donating metal ions to the dye is contained in the image receiving layer.
As the metal source, an organic or inorganic metal salt or a metal complex can be used. Preferred metal sources include the metal complex compounds described in US Pat. No. 4,987,049.

[0019]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following Examples, but it should not be construed that the invention is limited thereto.

Example 1 (Preparation of Image Recording Material) Infrared absorbing dye precursor (R-1, weight = 0.5 g / m ² ) and vinyl chloride (weight = 0.5 g / m ² ) were mixed with methyl ethyl ketone and It was dissolved in a 1: 1 mixed solvent of cyclohexanone, and applied to a polyethylene terephthalate film base having a thickness of 120 μm with a thickness of 80 μm to form an infrared absorbing dye precursor-containing layer. After drying this film, the thermal diffusible dye (D-
1, a weight ratio of 0.5 g / m ² ) and a 1: 1 mixed solution of methyl ethyl ketone and alcohol containing polyvinyl butyral (weight = 0.5 g / m ² ) were applied and dried to form an infrared absorbing dye precursor-containing layer. An image recording material 1 having an upper layer provided with a thermally diffusible dye-containing layer was obtained.

[0021]

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Example 2 (Preparation of Image Recording Material) In Example 1, the layer containing the infrared absorbing dye precursor and the layer containing the heat diffusible dye were separate layers. Add heat diffusible dye to absorption dye precursor dispersion (weight = 0.5
g / m ² ), an image recording material 2 was prepared in which the infrared absorbing dye precursor and the heat diffusible dye were contained in the same layer.

Example 3 (Preparation of Image Recording Material) The same construction as that of the image recording material 2 except that the thermal diffusible dyes of the image recording material 2 in Example 2 were changed to D-2 to D-7, respectively. Image recording materials 3 to 8 were prepared.

[0024]

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[0025]

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Example-4 (Image formation) The image recording materials 1 to 8 were superposed on a resolution pattern formed by a silver image and uniformly exposed by an ultraviolet lamp. The heat-diffusible dye-containing layer of these image recording materials and the image-receiving layer surface of the image-receiving material were superimposed and exposed to infrared light from the support side of the image-recording material. On the image receiving material, a sharp image with a high density of yellow, magenta or cyan was obtained, depending on the dyes used.

Example-5 (Image formation) The image recording materials 1 to 8 were transferred in the same manner as in Example-4, except that a resolution pattern was written by ultraviolet light guided by glass fiber from an ultraviolet lamp. On the image receiving material, a sharp image with a high density of yellow, magenta or cyan was obtained, depending on the dyes used.

Example-6 (Preparation of Image Forming Material) Image recording materials 9 to 14 were prepared in the same manner as in Example 3 except that the infrared absorbing dye precursor R-1 was changed to R-2.

[0029]

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Example-7 (Image formation) The image recording materials 9 to 14 were superposed on a resolution pattern formed by a silver image and uniformly exposed by an ultraviolet lamp. The heat-diffusible dye-containing layer of these image recording materials was superimposed on the surface of the image receiving layer of the image receiving material, and irradiated with infrared light from the support side of the image forming material. On the image receiving material, a high-density and sharp image of yellow, magenta or cyan was obtained depending on the dyes used.

The image receiving material used was a resin coated paper (RC paper) coated with a layer (thickness: 10 μm) made of polyvinyl chloride. When the image forming materials 1 to 4 were used, an image receiving material in which MS-1 (addition amount: 5 g / m ² ) was further added as a metal source in the image receiving layer was used.

[0032] MS-1: [Ni (NH 2 CH 2 CONH 2) 3] 2+ [(C 6 H 5) 4 B] - 2 Comparative Example using image recording material and the image receiving material of the present invention, a thermal head In the above, an image was formed by heating from the support surface of the image recording material, but the resolution was inferior to the image obtained by the image forming method of the present invention.

[0033]

According to the present invention, a full-color image with high sharpness and high density can be obtained by a simple method.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03C 1/73 503 B41M 5/38

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light- and heat-sensitive image recording material comprising at least a precursor of an organic infrared absorbing dye and a heat-diffusible dye on a support. 2. A photothermographic image recording material having at least a layer comprising a precursor of an organic infrared-absorbing dye and a heat-diffusible dye on a support was imagewise exposed to form an infrared-absorbing dye image. Thereafter, an image forming method is provided, in which the dye is superposed on the image receiving material and uniformly exposed, and the dye is transferred imagewise to the image receiving material. 3. The heat-sensitive and heat-sensitive image recording material according to claim 1, wherein the precursor of the organic infrared absorbing dye becomes an infrared absorbing dye upon irradiation with ultraviolet light.