Light image forming material and image-recording method using such

Claim 2

A light image forming material comprising: a support; (A) at least one member selected from the group consisting of oxidative-developable leuco dyes; (B) at least one member selected from the group consisting of photo-oxidizing agents; (C) at least one reducing agent; and (D) at least one organic sulfonamide compound and/or at least one member selected from the group consisting of hydroxy compounds represented by the following Formula (I) or (II), ##STR6## wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 and R 5 , which may be the same or different, each represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, an aryl group, an alkoxy group, a group of the formula COOR 6 or a group of the formula ##STR7## wherein each of said alkyl group, said aryl group and said alkoxy group may be substituted with at least one of a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, an alkoxy group, an aryl group and an aryloxy group; R 6 represents an alkyl group and R 7 and R 8 , which may be the same or different, each represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group, ##STR8## wherein R 9 , R 10 and R 11 , which may be the same or different, each represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an aryl group, a hydroxyalkyl group or an aryloxyalkyl group and each group may be substituted with at least one of a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, an alkoxy group, an aryl group, an aryloxy group, a hydroxyalkyl group and a hydroxyalkoxy group, said leuco dye (A) and said photo-oxidizing agent (B) being present in microcapsules, and said reducing agent (C) and said organic sulfonamide compound and/or said hydroxy compound (D) being present outside said microcapsule.

Claim 3

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein said microcapsules have walls of a member selected from the group consisting of polyurethanes, polyureas, polyesters, polycarbonates, urea-formaldehyde resins, melamine-formaldehyde resins, polystyrene, styrene-methacrylate copolymers, gelatin, polyvinyl pyrrolidone and polyvinyl alcohol or mixtures thereof.

Claim 4

The light image forming material of claim 2, wherein said high molecular weight material is selected from the group consisting of polyurethanes, polyureas, polyamides, polyesters, polycarbonates, polyurethanes and polyureas.

Claim 5

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the particle size of said microcapsules ranges from 0.1μ to 20μ.

Claim 6

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein said leuco dyes are reduction type dyes which have one or two hydrogen atoms and are capable of developing color by the elimination of a hydrogen atom or by the addition of an additional electron forming a dye.

Claim 7

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein said leuco dyes are selected from the group consisting of aminotriarylmethanes, aminoxanthenes, aminothioxanthenes, amino-9,10-dihydroacridines, aminophenoxazines, aminophenothiazines, aminodihydrophenazines, leuco indamine, aminohydrocinnamic acid, hydrazines, leuco indigoids, amino-2,3-dihydroanthraquinones, tetrahalo-p,p'-bisphenols, 2-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-4,5-diphenylimidazoles and phenethylanilines.

Claim 8

The light image forming material of claim 6, wherein said leuco dye is an aminotriarylmethane or the acid addition salts thereof.

Claim 9

The light image forming material of claim 7, wherein said aminotriarylmethanes or acid addition salts thereof are those wherein at least two of the aryl groups are phenyl groups having: (a) A R 1 R 2 N-substituent group bonded to the benzene ring at a para-position with respect to the carbon atom of the methane moiety wherein R 1 and R 2 are each a member selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, a 2-hydroxyethyl group, a 2-cyanoethyl group and a benzyl group, and (b) a substituent group bonded to the benzene ring at the ortho-position to the carbon atom of the methane moiety, this substituent group (b) being a member selected from the group consisting of a lower alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a lower alkoxy group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, fluorine, chlorine, hydrogen and bromine; or are those wherein the third aryl group may be the same as or different from the first two aryl groups and when the third aryl group is different from the first two aryl groups, the third aryl group is selected from the group consisting of: (a) a phenyl group which may be optionally substituted with a lower alkyl group, a lower alkoxy group, chlorine, a diphenylamino group, a cyano group, a nitro group, a hydroxy group, fluorine, bromine, an alkylthio group, an arylthio group, a thio ester group, an alkylsulfone group, an arylsulfone group, a sulfo group, a sulfonamido group, an alkylamido group, an arylamide group, (b) a naphthyl group which may be substituted with an amino group, a di-lower alkylamino group or an alkylamino group, (c) a pyridyl group which may be substituted with an alkyl group, (d) a quionolyl group, and (e) an indolinylidene group which may be substituted with an alkyl group.

Claim 10

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein said photo-oxidizing agent is selected from the group consisting of halogenated hydrocarbons, azide polymers, azide compounds, 3'-ethyl-1-methoxy-2-pyridothiacyanine perchlorate, 1-methoxy-2-methylpyridinium p-toluenesulfonate, a lophine dimer compounds, benzophenone, p-aminophenyl ketones, a polynuclear quinones and a thioxanthenone.

Claim 11

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the leuco dye and the photo-oxidizing agent are present in a molar ratio of from about 10:1 to about 1:10.

Claim 12

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the reducing agent is a free radical-capturing agent which traps free radicals of the photo-oxidizing agent after activation thereof.

Claim 13

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the reducing agent is selected from the group consisting of organic reducing agents having a hydroxyl group on a benzene ring and further a hydroxyl group or an amino group at another position than that position of the benzene ring and cyclic phenylhydrazide compounds.

Claim 14

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the reducing agent is present in an amount of 1 to 100 times on a mol basis to that of the photo-oxidizing agent.

Claim 15

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the organic sulfonamide compounds is selected from the group consisting of p-toluene sulfonamide, o-toluenesulfonamide, benzenesulfonamide, p-toluenesulfonanilide, N-(p-methoxyphenyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(o-methoxyphenyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(p-chlorophenyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(o-chlorophenyl)-p-toluenesulfontoluenesulfonamide, N-(p-tolyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(o-tolyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(o-hydroxyphenyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-benzyl-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(2-phenethyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, N-3-(3-methoxypropyl)-p-toluenesulfonamide, methanesulfonanilide, N-(p-tolyl)sulfonamide, N-(p-methoxyphenyl)sulfonamide, N-(o-methoxy)sulfonamide, N-(p-chlorophenyl)sulfonamide, N-(o-chlorophenyl)sulfonamide, N-(2,4-xylyl)sulfonamide, N-(p-ethoxyphenyl)sulfonamide, N-benzylmethanesulfonamide, N-(2-phenoxyethyl)methanesulfonamide, 1,3-bis(methanesulfonylamino)benzene, 1,3-bis(p-toluenesulfonylamino)propane and p-ethylbenzenesulfonamide.

Claim 16

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the organic sulfonamide compound, when present, is present in an amount of 0.01 to 10 parts by weight, per part by weight of the reducing agent.

Claim 17

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the hydroxy compound is selected from the group consisting of p-t-butylphenol, p-t-octylphenol, p-α-cumylphenol, p-t-pentylphenol, m-xylenol, 2,5-dimethylphenol, 2,4,5-trimethylphenol, 3-methyl-4-isopropylphenol, p-benzylphenol, o-cyclohexylphenol, p-(diphenylmethyl)phenol, p-(α,α-diphenylethyl)phenol, o-phenylphenol, ethyl p-hydroxybenzoate, propyl p-hydroxybenzoate, butyl p-hydroxybenzoate, benzyl p-hydroxybenzoate, p-methoxyphenol, p-butoxyphenol, p-heptyloxyphenol, p-benzyloxyphenol, dimethyl 3-hydroxyphthalates, 1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)dodecane, 1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-ethyl-hexane, 1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-methyl-pentane, 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)heptane, 2-t-butyl-4-methoxyphenol, 2,6-dimethoxyphenol, resorcinol mono-(2-hydroxyethyl)ether, 2-hydroxymethyl-p-cresol, 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-hexanediol, resorcinol bis(2-hydroxyethyl)ether, 1,4-bis(hydroxyethoxy)benzene, p-xylylenediol, 1-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol, diphenylmethanol, 1-diphenylethanol, 2-methyl-2-phenyl-1,3-propanediol, salicyl alcohol and 3-(o-methoxyphenoxy)-1,2-propanediol.

Claim 18

The light image forming material of claim 1, wherein the hydroxy compound, when present, is present in an amount of 0.01 to 10 parts by weight, per part by weight of the reducing agent.

Claim 19

An image recording method which comprises imagewise exposing the light image forming material as claimed in claim 1, to form an image and then causing a photo-oxidizing agent and a reducing agent to come into contact with each other.