Compositions – Electrically conductive or emissive compositions – Elemental carbon containing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-02
2004-12-14
Gupta, Yogendra N. (Department: 1751)
Compositions
Electrically conductive or emissive compositions
Elemental carbon containing
C252S500000, C106S031270, C106S031280, C106S031370, C106S031650, C106S031900, C347S100000, C347S101000, C347S111000, C347S171000, C347S010000, C423S235000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06830709
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique to obtain a color image excellent in color and color evenness, more particularly to a method of determining a liquid composition most suitable for the ink-jet recording technique, such a liquid composition, and an ink set using such a liquid composition, a method and ink-jet recording apparatus for forming a colored portion on a recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
The ink-jet recording method conducts recording by ejecting ink to apply the ink onto a recording medium such as paper. It is easy to produce a head, and to form images of high-resolution and high-quality at high speed by using an ink jet recording method where an ink droplet is ejected by the action of a bubble formed in the ink by applying thermal energy to the ink by using an electrothermal converter as an ejection-energy supply means as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 61-59911, 61-59912 and 61-59914.
In general, conventional inks for ink-jet recording contain water as a principal component, and in addition, a water-soluble solvent having a high boiling point such as glycol to prevent drying and clogging at orifices. When such an ink is used for recording on a recording medium, sometimes there arise problems such as insufficient fixation, and uneven image presumably due to the uneven distribution of a filler and/or a size on the surface of the recording medium such as paper.
Besides, image quality as high as the silver salt photograph has recently become required for ink-jet recording, leading to intense technical demands for high image density, wide color reproduction range and enhanced color evenness on ink-jet recording.
Under such circumstances, various proposals have heretofore been made to stabilize the ink-jet recording process and to enhance the quality of articles recorded by the ink-jet recording process. One of the proposals on the recording medium is to coat the surface of a base paper of the recording medium with a filler and/or a size. For example, there has been disclosed a technique to form an ink receiving layer on the base paper by applying porous fine particles that adsorb a coloring material on the base paper as a filler. Recording media produced by using these techniques are now on the market as ink-jet coated papers, etc.
The following are some of the representative proposals on the ink-jet inks in the prior art.
Prior Art (1): Addition of a Volatile Solvent or a Penetrating Solvent to the Ink;
As means for quickening the fixing property of the ink onto a recording medium, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-65269 discloses addition of a compound such as a surfactant to increase the penetrability of the ink. Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-66976 disclosed the use of an ink containing mainly a volatile solvent.
Prior Art (2): Mixing of an Ink and a Liquid Composition Reactive with the Ink on a Recording Medium.
In order to improve the image density, the water-fastness, and bleeding as well, there has been proposed a method where a liquid composition capable of improving the image quality is applied to a recording medium before or after the ink is applied to the recording medium to form an image.
More specifically, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-60783 discloses a method in which a liquid composition containing a basic polymer is applied to a recording medium, and an ink containing an anionic dye is then applied thereto, thereby conducting recording. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-22681 discloses a recording method in which a first liquid composition containing a reactive chemical substance and a second liquid composition containing a compound reactive with the chemical substance are mixed on the recording medium. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-299971 discloses a method in which a liquid composition containing an organic compound having two or more cationic groups per molecule is applied to the recording medium, and then recording is conducted with an ink containing an anionic dye. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-9279 discloses a method in which an acidic liquid composition containing succinic acid or the like is applied to a recording medium, and recording is then conducted with an ink containing an anionic dye.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-63185 discloses a method in which a liquid composition that can insolubilize dyestuff is applied to the recording medium prior to application of an ink. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-224955 discloses a method in which a liquid composition containing two kinds of cationic substances having respective molecular weight distribution is used with an ink containing an anionic compound. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-72393 discloses a method in which a liquid composition containing a cationic substance and finely ground cellulose is used together with an ink. In both publications, it is shown that the obtained image is excellent in image density, character quality, water fastness, color reproducibility and lack of bleeding problem. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-150396 discloses a method in which recording is conducted with a dye ink on a recording medium, and a water-fastness enhancing agent that forms a color lake with the dye is then applied to provide water-fastness to the recorded image.
Prior Art (3): Mixing of an Ink and a Liquid Composition Containing Fine Particles on a Recording Medium;
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-259590 discloses a method where first a colorless liquid containing colorless fine inorganic particles is applied to a recording medium and then a non-aqueous recording liquid is applied. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-92010 discloses a method where first a solution containing fine particles or fine particles and a binder polymer is applied to a recording medium, and then applied is an ink containing a pigment, a water-soluble resin, a water-soluble solvent and water. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-34432 discloses a recording material comprised of an ink and a liquid composition comprised of water-insoluble fine particles. It is said that images with excellent printing quality and coloring properties are obtained regardless of the types of the paper sheets.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Inventors of the present invention have studied various ink-jet recording techniques as described above and found that these prior arts can solve respective technical problems effectively, but sometimes at the sacrifice of other ink-jet recording properties. For example, it is well known that the above-described recording medium obtained by coating the surface of the base paper of the recording medium with a filler and/or a size (hereinafter referred to as coated paper) enables formation of high-quality images.
In general, in order to obtain an image of high saturation, it is known that the coloring material should be maintained in a monomolecular film state without agglomeration on the surface of the recording medium. The porous fine particles on the coated paper have such function. However, in order to obtain images of both high density and high saturation with a given ink containing a coloring material, it is indispensable to form an ink-receiving layer as thick as the paper substrate is covered with a large amount of the porous fine particles, thus leading to the loss of the texture of the base paper. The present inventors considered that such a thick ink-receiving layer is required because the coloring matter is not effectively adsorbed on the porous fine particles.
The following explanation is made with respect to a coated paper having one ink-receiving layer.
FIG. 9
schematically illustrates a section of a coated paper in the vicinity of the surface thereof. In
FIG. 9
, reference numerals
901
and
903
indicate a base paper and an ink-receiving layer, respectively. The ink-receiving layer
903
co
Endo Makiko
Kato Masao
Tomioka Hiroshi
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Gupta Yogendra N.
Vijayakumar Kallambella
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