Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Discontinuous or differential coating – impregnation or bond
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-26
2003-07-08
Kelly, Cynthia H. (Department: 1774)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Discontinuous or differential coating, impregnation or bond
C428S331000, C524S609000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06589635
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording, particularly to an ink-jet recording material that has photo-like high glossiness, is excellent in ink-absorption property, and is improved in preservability after printing, and an ink-jet recording method.
2. Prior Art
An ink-jet recording method is a printing method in which fine drop of an ink composition is shot and attach to a recording medium such as paper, etc. to carry out printing. This method has characteristics that images of high resolution and high quality can be printed at a high speed, using a relatively cheap device. When a color image is printed by using an ink-jet recording system, it is general to use at least the three primary colors of yellow ink, magenta ink and cyan ink. There is another method in which finer image is obtained by using dense and pale inks having different densities of the magenta ink and the cyan ink, respectively. An ink composition generally used in the ink-jet recording usually comprises water as a main component as well as a coloring component and a wetting agent such as glycerin for preventing clogging, etc.
As ink used for ink-jet recording, it is necessary to have water resistance since if it does not have water resistance, there is a possibility that a coloring material is dissolved or dispersed again when the resulting image is contacted with water. To improve the water resistance, there has been known a method of adding a cationic type polymer as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 119280/1987, No. 296878/1990, No. 255876/1990, No. 188174/1991 and No. 305011/1995, etc. Also, the ink for ink-jet recording is required not only to be excellent in preservability of the coloring material in the ink but also to be excellent in preservability of the resulting image, such as light resistance and gas resistance. In particular, when a color image is printed, if any one of the plural colors is inferior in preservability, there is a problem that a color hue is changed and quality of the resulting color image is markedly deteriorated. Moreover, when a finer image is printed by using dense and pale inks, there is a problem that deterioration is remarkable at the image region at which the dense and pale inks are used. Thus, excellent preservability is highly required to a photo-like printed material or a printed material exposed to direct sunlight at the outdoors, etc.
On the other hand, as a recording material to be used for an ink-jet recording system, a recording material which comprises a porous ink-receptive layer comprising a pigment such as amorphous silica, and a water-soluble binder such as polyvinyl alcohol being provided on a support such as a usual paper or the so-called ink-jet recording sheet has generally been known.
There have been proposed recording sheets obtained by coating a silicon-containing pigment such as silica with a hydrophilic binder onto a paper support as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 51583/1980, No. 157/1981, No. 107879/1982, No. 107880/1982, No. 230787/1984, No. 160277/1987, No. 184879/1987, No. 183382/1987, No. 11877/1989, and the like.
Also, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56552/1991, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 188287/1990, No. 81064/1998, No. 119423/1998, No. 175365/1998, No. 193776/1998, No. 203006/1998, No. 217601/1998, No. 20300/1999, No. 20306/1999 and No. 34481/1999, U.S. Pat. No. 5,612,281, and EP 0 813 978 A, and the like, there,have been disclosed ink-jet recording materials using synthetic silica fine particles prepared by a gas phase process (hereinafter referred to as “fumed silica”) The fumed silica is ultrafine particles having an average particle size of a primary particle of several nm to several tens nm, and has characteristics of giving high glossiness and high ink-absorption properties. In recent years, as a photo-like recording sheet has earnestly been desired, glossiness becomes more important. As such a recording material, there has been proposed a recording material in which an ink-receptive layer mainly comprising fumed silica is coated on a water-proof support such as a polyolefin resin-coated paper (a polyolefin resin such as polyethylene, etc. are laminated on the both surfaces of paper) or a polyester film, etc.
A conventional paper support which has generally been used, has a role of an ink-absorption layer by itself. However, unlike a paper support, the above-mentioned water resistant support such as a polyolefin resin-coated paper cannot absorb ink, so that ink absorption property of an c provided on the support is extremely important and a void ratio of the ink-receptive layer is required to be increased. Accordingly, it is necessary to increase an amount of the fumed silica to be coated and further to decrease a ratio of a binder to the fumed silica.
However, in the porous recording material using inorganic ultrafine particles such as the fumed silica, there is a problem that the printed image after printing is likely discolored during storage. That is, discoloration due to light or a small amount of a gas in air is likely caused. In particular, discoloration due to a small amount of a gas in air is a more significant problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object,of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording material which is excellent in preservability of a printed part, and an ink-jet recording method, particularly, to provide an ink-jet recording material having a porous ink-receptive layer that has photo-like high glossiness and high ink-absorption capacity, and an ink-jet recording method using the same.
The above objects of the present invention can be accomplished by an ink-jet recording material which comprises a support, and an ink-receptive layer provided on the support, wherein said ink-receptive layer contains at least one thioether compound having an alkyl group substituted by a hydrophilic group or a group containing a basic-nitrogen atom.
Also, an ink-jet recording method of the present invention comprises at least the step of shooting liquid drops of an ink composition comprising at least a water-soluble dye, an organic solvent and water to an ink-jet recording material having an ink-receptive layer containing at least one thioether compound having an alkyl group substituted by a hydrophilic group or a group containing a basic nitrogen atom, provided on a support.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an ink-jet recording material comprising a support, and an ink-receptive layer containing inorganic fine particles provided on the support, wherein the ink-receptive layer contains at least one thioether compounds having an alkyl group substituted by a hydrophilic group or a group containing a basic nitrogen atom can be provided.
The thioether compound having an alkyl group substituted by a hydrophilic group or a group containing a basic nitrogen atom to be used in the present invention may include, for example, a compound represented by the following formula (I):
R
1
—(S—R
3
)
m
—S—R
2
(I)
wherein R
1
and R
2
may be the same or different from each other, each represents a hydrogen atom, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group or a group containing these alkyl group and the aryl group, or may form a ring by binding to each other, provided that at least one of R
1
and R
2
is an alkyl group substituted by a hydrophilic group such as a hydroxy group, a sulfo group, a carboxy group and a (poly)ethyleneoxy group, or a group containing a basic nitrogen atom such as an amino group, an amide group, an ammonium group, a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group, an aminocarbonyl group and an aminosulfonyl group, or a group containing at least one of the above-mentioned these groups, and the substituted alkyl group may be bonded to the sulfur atom of the thioether through a divalent linking group such as a carbamoyl group,
Hanmura Masahiro
Kanada Hidemasa
Kaneko Satoshi
Onishi Hiroyuki
Suzuki Yukihiro
Kelly Cynthia H.
Manelli Denison & Selter PLLC
Mitsubishi Paper Mills Limited
Shewareged B.
White, Jr. Paul E.
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