Radiation imagery chemistry: process – composition – or product th – Radiation sensitive product – Identified radiation sensitive composition with color...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-15
2001-01-09
Le, Hoa Van (Department: 1752)
Radiation imagery chemistry: process, composition, or product th
Radiation sensitive product
Identified radiation sensitive composition with color...
C430S956000, C430S957000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06171772
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a silver halide color photosensitive material containing a non-dye-forming coupler capable of releasing photographically useful group and, more particularly, to a silver halide photosensitive material containing a novel non-dye-forming DIR coupler capable of forming an essentially colorless cyclized product and releasing a development inhibitor or its precursor by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution using a nitrogen atom of an aromatic amine-based developing agent, which is produced by a coupling reaction with an oxidized form of the aromatic amine-based developing agent, as a nucleophilic seed.
In the field of color photosensitive materials, it is known that the properties of photographic images greatly improve by releasing a photographically useful group silver imagewise at the same time a silver image is formed.
For example, a DIR coupler releases a development inhibitor by coupling with an oxidized form of a developing agent upon development, thereby achieving functions of, e.g., improving the graininess of a color image, improving the sharpness by an edge effect, and improving the color reproduction by diffusion of the inhibitor to other layers. These functions are described in detail in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,962 and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. (hereinafter referred to as JP-A-)5-313322.
As described above, DIR couplers contribute to improvements of the quality of a color image. However, these couplers release a development inhibitor or its precursor by coupling with an oxidized form of a developing agent and at the same form an azomethine dye or indoaniline dye. Therefore, these couplers sometimes have an unpreferable effect on the color reproduction of a color image or an adverse effect on the image stability. This is a large cause of limitations on the versatility, use amount, and molecular design of these functional couplers and on functions achieved by the couplers.
For example, a highly active DIR coupler is necessary to give a satisfactory interlayer effect from a green-sensitive layer to a blue-sensitive layer. Since, however, no high-activity DIR coupler for generating a magenta dye exists, a high-activity coupler for generating a yellow dye or cyan dye is used in a green-sensitive layer. These DIR couplers sometimes cancel the interlayer effect by their own color formation. Also, the use amount is restricted because color impurity may occur.
Instead of DIR compounds, color correcting colored couplers are sometimes used to obtain an apparent interlayer effect or to correct the hue of an unpreferable coupler. However, the use amount of these colored couplers is naturally limited by the suitability for a printer.
As means for solving these problems, couplers (non-dye-forming couplers) capable of releasing PUG (photographically useful groups including a development inhibitor) by coupling with an oxidized form of a developing agent without (essentially) forming a dye are described in, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. (hereinafter referred to as JP-B-)52-46817 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,315,070. Also, some couplers (flow couplers) release PUG by coupling with an oxidized form of a developing agent and at the same time form a dye, but this dye formed flows out into a processing solution during photographic processing. These couplers are described in, e.g., JP-B-1-52742, JP-A-4-356042, and JP-A-8-44011. However, the former non-dye-forming couplers have low coupling activity and are not stable enough. Also, a dye flowing out from the latter flow couplers pollute a processing solution. This is unpreferable when the recent progress of low-replenishment processing is taken into consideration.
As means for releasing PUG with no dye formation, a method using a redox reaction with an oxidized form of a developing agent is known. Examples are DIR-hydroquinones described in, e.g., JP-A-49-129536 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,643; DIR-aminophenols described in, e.g., JP-A-52-57828; p-nitrobenzyl derivatives described in, e.g., EP45129; and hydrazine derivatives described in, e.g., JP-A-8-211542. Unfortunately, compared to the functional couplers described above, these redox compounds generally have low stability with time in a sensitive material and are slow to release PUG after a redox reaction.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a silver halide photosensitive material which improves its graininess, color reproduction, and sharpness by containing a non-dye-forming coupler capable of releasing a development inhibitor or its precursor immediately after reacting with an oxidized form of an aromatic amine-based developing agent without forming a dye.
The above object is achieved by (1) to (6) below.
(1) A silver halide color photosensitive material comprising blue-, green-, and red-sensitive silver halide emulsion layers on a support, wherein at least one layer of the material contains a compound represented by formula (I) below in an amount that satisfies a relation:
X/(X+Y)≧0.14, wherein X is the molar amount of the compound represented by formula (I) and Y is the molar amount of a functional coupler other than the compound represented by formula (I) in the same color-sensitive layer or the color-sensitive layers having the same color sensitivity as the color-sensitive layer to which the compound is added, or in the same non-sensitive layer to which the compound is added
COUP—A—E—B Formula (I)
wherein COUP represents a coupler moiety capable of coupling with an oxidized form of an aromatic amine-based developing agent, E represents an electrophilic portion, A represents a coupling group capable of releasing B, along with ring formation, by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution between a nitrogen atom, which originates from the aromatic amine-based developing agent and directly bonds to the coupling position in the coupling product of COUP and the oxidized form of the developing agent, and the electrophilic portion E, and B represents a development inhibitor or its precursor.
(2) The material according to item (1) above, wherein the compound represented by formula (I) is contained in the green-sensitive layer.
(3) The material according to item (1) above, wherein the compound represented by formula (I) is contained in the blue-sensitive layer.
(4) The material according to item (1) above, wherein the compound represented by formula (I) is contained in an interlayer effect donor layer by which a barycentric wavelength, &lgr;
−R
, of a magnitude distribution of an interlayer effect given to at least one red-sensitive layer at a wavelength of 500 to 600 nm satisfies a relation:
500 nm≧&lgr;
−R
≧600 nm
and a relation:
&lgr;
G
−&lgr;
−R
≧5 nm,
wherein &lgr;
G
is a barycentric wavelength of the green-sensitive layer.
(5) The silver halide color photosensitive material according to item (1) above, wherein the compound represented by formula (I) is contained in the red-sensitive layer.
(6) The silver halide color photosensitive material according to item (1) above, wherein the compound represented by formula (I) is contained in a non-sensitive layer.
Additional object and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The object and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.
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Ikeda Akira
Ito Takayuki
Takaku Koji
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Le Hoa Van
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