Silver halide light-sensitive material comprising a foggant-releasing coupler and a non-developable silver halide layer between color-sensitive emulsion layers

Claim 2

A silver halide light-sensitive material comprising a support having provided thereon at least two silver halide emulsion layers differing in color sensitivity, at least one of said emulsion layers containing at least one compound capable of releasing a fogging agent, a development accelerator, or a precursor thereof in proportion to the amount of silver developed upon development processing, wherein a layer containing silver halide grains which are not substantially developed by the development processing of said light-sensitive material is provided between said two emulsion layers differing in color sensitivity.

Claim 3

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 1, wherein the compound capable of releasing a fogging agent, a development accelerator, or a precursor thereof is represented by formula (1), (2), or (3): Cp--(TIME).sub.n --FA (1) BALL--Cp--(TIME).sub.n --FA (2) RED--(TIME).sub.n --FA (3) wherein Cp represents a coupler residue capable of coupling with an oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent; BALL represents an anti-diffusible group releasable from Cp by a coupling reaction with an oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent; RED represents a compound residue capable of undergoing oxidation-reduction with an oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent; TIME represents a timing group releasable from Cp of RED upon a coupling reaction or oxidation-reduction reaction to release FA; n represents 0 or 1; and FA represents a residue containing a group capable of fogging silver halides or accelerating development or a precursor thereof and being releasable from Cp or RED upon coupling when n is 0, or releasable from TIME when n is 1.

Claim 4

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 2, wherein FA is represented by the formula: AD--(L).sub.m --X wherein AD represents a group capable of being adsorbed onto silver halide grains; L represents a divalent group; m represents 0 or 1; and X represents a reducing group or a group capable of reacting with silver halides to form silver sulfide with proviso that when X is a group capable of reacting with silver halides to form silver sulfide; and also adsorbing onto silver halide grains, the group AD--(L) m -- is not necessarily required.

Claim 5

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 2, wherein Cp is a yellow coupler residue represented by formula (I) or (II) ##STR22## wherein R 1 represents an anti-diffusible group having from 8 to 32 total carbon atoms; R 2 , which may be the same or different when R 2 represents two or more groups, represents a hydrogen atom or one or more of a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group, a lower alkoxy group and an anti-diffusible group having from 8 to 32 total carbon atoms; and the asterisk (*) indicates a position to which FA or TIME is bonded.

Claim 6

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 2, wherein Cp is a magneta coupler residue represented by formula (III), (IV), or (V) ##STR23## wherein R 1 represents an anti-diffusible group having from 8 to 32 total carbon atoms; R 2 represents a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group, a lower alkoxy group, a phenyl group or a substituted phenyl group; Z represents a non-metallic atomic group forming a substituted or unsubstituted 5-membered azole ring containing from 2 to 4 nitrogen atoms; and the asterisk (*) indicates a position to which FA or TIME is bonded.

Claim 7

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 2, wherein Cp is a cyan coupler residue represented by formula (VI), (VII), (VIII), or (IX) ##STR24## wherein R 1 represents an anti-diffusible group having from 8 to 32 total carbon atoms; R 2 , which may be the same or different when R 2 represents two or more groups, represents one or more of a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group and a lower alkoxy group; and the asterisk (*) indicates a position to which FA or TIME is bonded.

Claim 8

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 2, wherein Cp is a colorless coupler residue represented by formula (X), (XI), or (XII) ##STR25## wherein R 1 represents an anti-diffusible group having from 8 to 32 total carbon atoms; R 2 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a lower alkyl group or a lower alkoxy group; and the asterisk (*) indicates a position to which FA or TIME is bonded; ##STR26## wherein R 1 represents an anti-diffusible group having from 8 to 32 total carbon atoms; V represents an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, or a nitrogen atom; and the asterisk (*) is as defined above; ##STR27## wherein R 1 and R 2 each represents an alkoxycarbonyl group, an aminocarbonyl group, an acyl group, a group derived from a sulfonic acid or sulfinic acid derivative corresponding to the above-described groups, a cyano group, an ammonium group or a nitrogen containing heterocyclic group which is bonded at the N-position thereof, or R 1 and R 2 may be taken together to form a 5- or 6-membered ring; and the asterisk (*) is as defined above.

Claim 9

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 2, wherein Cp is a black forming coupler residue represented by formula (XIII), (XIV), or (XV) ##STR28## wherein R 1 represents an alkyl group having from 3 to 20 carbon atoms, a phenyl group, or a phenyl group substituted with a hydroxyl group, an amino group, or an alkyl or alkoxy group of from 1 to 20 carbon atoms; R 2 , which may be the same or different, represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl or alkenyl group of from 1 to 20 carbon atoms or an aryl group of from 6 to 20 carbon atoms; R 3 , which may be the same or different when R 3 represents two or more groups, represents one or more of a halogen atom, an alkyl or alkoxy group of from 1 to 20 carbon atoms and other monovalent groups; and the asterisk (*) indicates a position to which FA or TIME is bonded.

Claim 10

A silver halide light-sensitive material as claimed in claim 2, wherein FA is represented by formula (XII) or (XXIII) ##STR29## wherein R 1 represents an acyl group, a carbamoyl group, an alkylsulfonyl group, an arylsulfonyl group, an alkoxycarbonyl group, an aryloxycarbonyl group, or a sulfamoyl group; R 2 represents a hydrogen atom, an acyl group, or an aryloxycarbonyl group; R 3 represents a halogen atom, an alkoxy group, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an aryl group, an aryloxy group, an alkylthio group, an arylthio group, a carbonamido group, or a sulfonamido group; m represents 0 or an integer of from 1 to 4; when m is 2 of more, R 3 may be the same or different or two or more of them may be taken together to form a condensed ring; L is a divalent linking group; n represents 0 or 1; Z 1 represents a monocyclic or condensed hetero ring; and Z 2 represents an atomic group forming a monocyclic or condensed ring together with the adjacent nitrogen atom.

Claim 11

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 1, wherein the compound capable of releasing a fogging agent, a development accelerator, or a precursor thereof is present in an amount of from 10 -8 to 0.5 mols per mol of a silver halide light-sensitive emulsion in which said compound is incorporated.

Claim 12

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 10, wherein the compound capable of releasing a fogging agent, a development accelerator, or a precursor thereof is present in an amount of from 5×10 -7 to 10 -2 mols per mol of the silver halide light-sensitive emulsion in which said compound is incorporated.

Claim 13

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 1, wherein the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed have a silver bromide content of 60 mol% or more, a silver chloride content of 30 mol% or less, and a silver iodide content of 40 mol% or less.

Claim 14

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 12, wherein the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed are silver iodobromides having a silver iodide content of from 0 to about 20 mol%.

Claim 15

A silver halide light-sensitive material in claim 13, wherein the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed are silver iodobromides having a silver iodide content of from about 0.3 to about 5 mol%.

Claim 16

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 1, wherein the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed have a mean grain size of about 0.2 μm or less.

Claim 17

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 15, wherein the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed have a mean grain size of about 0.15 μm or less.

Claim 18

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 16, wherein the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed have a mean grain size of 0.10 μm or less.

Claim 19

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 1, wherein the layer containing the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed has a silver coverage of from 0.002 to 2 g/m 2 .

Claim 20

A silver halide light-sensitive material as in claim 18, wherein the layer containing the silver halide grains which are not substantially developed has a silver coverage of from 0.01 to 1 g/m 2 .