Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Radiation sensitive product – Identified radiation sensitive composition with color...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-18
2003-11-11
Letscher, Geraldine (Department: 1752)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Radiation sensitive product
Identified radiation sensitive composition with color...
C430S435000, C430S448000, C430S467000, C430S470000, C430S483000, C430S203000, C430S226000, C430S566000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06645711
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, and more particularly to an incorporated color-developing agent that enables simply and quickly obtaining a dye image by heat development.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Heretofore, processes for forming an image by heat development are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,152,904 and 3,457,075, by D. Klosterboer in “Thermally Processed Silver Systems” (Imaging Processes and Materials, Neblette, 8th edition, edited by J. Sturge, V. Walworth, and A. Shepp, Chapter 9, page 279, 1989). These heat-developable light-sensitive materials contain a reducible non-photosensitive silver source (e.g., an organosilver salt), a catalytically active amount of a photocatalyst (e.g., a silver halide), and a reducing agent for silver, which are ordinarily in a state of dispersion in an organic binder matrix. The light-sensitive materials are stable at normal temperature, but when heated to a high temperature (e.g., 80° C. or above) after exposure to light, silver is formed through an oxidation-reduction reaction between the reducible silver source (acting as an oxidizing agent) and the reducing agent. This oxidation-reduction reaction is accelerated by a catalytic action of the latent image formed by the exposure to light. The silver produced by the reaction of the reducible silver salt in the exposed area becomes black in contrast with the non-exposed area, thereby to form an image.
On the other hand, the method utilizing a coupling reaction between a coupler and an oxidized product of a developing agent is most common, as a color-image-forming method of a photographic light-sensitive material. The heat-developable light-sensitive materials adopting this method are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,761,270 and 4,021,240, JP-A-59-231539 (“JP-A” means unexamined published Japanese patent application) and JP-A-60-128438. In these publications, p-sulfonamidophenols are used as developing agents. Since the coupler before the processing has no absorption in a visible region, the light-sensitive materials according to the coupling method are advantageous in terms of sensitivity, compared with a light-sensitive material that employs a color material containing a conventional dye. Accordingly, such light-sensitive materials are thought to have the advantage that, beyond use for print materials, they can also be used as photographic materials for shooting. However, in the method of incorporating p-sulfonamidophenol, there has been a problem that any proper image could not be obtained due to deterioration of p-sulfonamidophenol in the light-sensitive material prior to processing.
As methods of solving this problem, the heat developable photosensitive materials having incorporated therein blocked p-phenylenediamine-series developing agents and processing methods therefor have been proposed by EP 1,113,316 A2, EP 1,113,322 A2, EP 1,113,323 A2, EP 1,113,324 A2, EP 1,113,325 A2, and EP 1,113,326 A2. However, these heat developable photosensitive materials do not always have proper characteristics about their image formation temperatures, color formation efficiencies, photographic sensitivities, anti-fog properties, and the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, which contains a color-developing agent represented by formula (1):
wherein R
1
, R
2
, and R
3
each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; R
4
represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a heterocyclic group; R
1
and R
2
, or/and R
2
and R
4
may combine with each other to form a 5-membered, 6-membered or 7-membered ring; Z represents a group of non-metallic atoms that form a 5-membered, 6-membered or 7-membered ring together with the nitrogen atom and two carbon atoms in the benzene ring; R
5
represents an alkyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group, in which the compound represented by formula (1) contains none of a hydroxyl group, a carboxyl group and a sulfo group in each of R
1
, R
2
, R
3
and R
4
.
Other and further features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided the following means:
(1) A silver halide color photosensitive material, which contains a color-developing agent represented by the following formula (1):
wherein R
1
, R
2
, and R
3
each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; R
4
represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a heterocyclic group; R
1
and R
2
, or/and R
2
and R
4
may combine with each other to form a 5-membered, 6-membered or 7-membered ring; Z represents a group of non-metallic atoms that form a 5-membered, 6-membered or 7-membered ring together with the nitrogen atom and two carbon atoms in the benzene ring; and R
5
represents an alkyl group, an aryl group or a heterocyclic group, in which the compound represented by formula (1) contains none of a hydroxyl group, a carboxyl group and a sulfo group in each of R
1
, R
2
, R
3
, and R
4
.
(2) The silver halide color photosensitive material according to the above item (1), wherein R
5
in the compound represented by formula (1) is represented by the following formula (2):
wherein X represents a halogen atom, or a substituent which is bonded to the benzene ring through a hetero atom; R
6
represents a substituent; and n is an integer of 0 (zero) to 4.
(3) The silver halide color photosensitive material according to the above item (1), wherein a compound obtained by replacing R
5
—SO
2
—NH—CO— in the compound represented by formula (1) by a hydrogen atom has a ClogP value of 3.0 or more.
Herein, the numerical ranges as used herein each are meant to include the starting and ending values as a minimum and a maximum, respectively, unless otherwise specified.
[I] Heat-developable Photosensitive Material
A preferred embodiment of the silver halide color photosensitive material of the present invention is a heat-developable photosensitive material. The heat development photosensitive material has, on a support, a layer (image-forming layer) that contains the color developing agent for use in the present invention, a coupler, an organic silver salt as a reducible silver salt, and a binder, and that forms an image by a dye generated from the color developing agent for use in the present invention and the coupler, and the material has, on the side of the image forming layer, a photosensitive silver halide emulsion layer (photosensitive layer) containing a photosensitive silver halide. Preferably, the image-forming layer is the photosensitive layer. By incorporating a compound represented by the formula (1) and a coupler compound into the side of the image-forming layer, a dye image can be obtained.
According to the heat-developable photosensitive material of the present invention, in which the compound of the formula (1) is contained, a dye image can be preferably obtained, by providing at least three photosensitive silver halide emulsion layers (photosensitive layers) which are different from each other in their photosensitive wavelength ranges and/or absorption wavelength ranges of dyes formed from the oxidized color-developing agents represented by the formula (1) and the couplers.
The compound represented by formula (1), which the heat-developable photosensitive material of the present invention contains, is a compound which hardly has an absorption wavelength in a visible wavelength range. However, when the photosensitive material is subjected to heat-development, the compound releases a reducing agent to contribute to the formation of a silver image. At this time, an oxidized product of the released reducing agent (hereinafter, also referred to as an oxidized product of the color-developing agent) is produced. When the oxidized product reacts with a coupler compound, a dye is produced, to give an image-wise dye image in accordance with the silver image. In the present invention,
Kawagishi Toshio
Matsumoto Kazuhiko
Tsukase Masaaki
Uchida Osamu
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Letscher Geraldine
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