Heat-developable color photosensitive element

Claim 2

A dye-diffusion-transfer type, heat-developable color photosensitive element having a support bearing thereon at least two photographic component layers containing a photosensitive silver halide, an organic silver salt, a reducing agent, a diffusible dye donor substance and a binder; said heat-developable color photosensitive element characterized in that said photographic component layer contains a mixture of a gelatin and a vinyl pyrrolidone polymer as the binder thereof and a thermal solvent.

Claim 3

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vinyl pyrrolidone polymer is of from 1,000 to 400,000 in molecular weight.

Claim 4

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vinyl pyrrolidone polymer is copolymerized with other monomers to form a copolymer in which at least 20% of the composition is polyvinyl pyrolidone.

Claim 5

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 3, wherein the vinyl pyrrolidone copolymer is of 5,000 to 400,000 in molecular weight.

Claim 6

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the binder comprises gelatin and the vinyl pyrrolidone polymer which are in the proportion of 20˜60% to 10˜80%.

Claim 7

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the binder is a mixture of gelatin, polyvinyl pyrrolidone of 1,000 to 400,000 in molecular weight, and one or more kinds of other macromolecular substances.

Claim 8

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the binder is a mixture of gelatin, a vinyl pyrrolidone copolymer of 5,000 to 400,000 in molecular weight and one or more kinds of other macromolecular substances.

Claim 9

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 6, wherein the macromolecular substances which are to be mixed into the gelatin and the polyvinyl pyrrolidone or the vinyl pyrrolidone copolymer are contained in the proportion of 0˜70% of all the mixture.

Claim 10

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantity of the binder used is 0.01˜40 g per sq. meter of the support.

Claim 11

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the binder is used in every component layer.

Claim 12

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thermal solvent is a solid, semisolid or liquid substance at room temperature, and is dissolved or melted in the binder by heating.

Claim 13

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 11, wherein the thermal solvent is an urea derivative, an amide derivative, a polyethylene glycol, or a polyhydric alcohol.

Claim 14

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 12, wherein the urea derivative which serves as the thermal solvent is a compound having the following Formula (1): ##STR8## wherein, X is an oxygen atom or a sulphur atom; R 1 , R 2 , R 3 and R 4 each are a hydrogen atom, a substituted or non-substituted alkyl radical having not more than 12 carbon atoms, in which a ring may be formed by coupling R 1 to R 2 or R 3 to R 4; or a substituted or non-substituted aryl radical having not more than 12 carbon atoms, respectively, and they are either the same or the different from each other.

Claim 15

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 12, wherein the amide derivative which serves as the thermal solvent is a compound having the following Formula (2): ##STR9## wherein R 5 is a substituted or non-substituted alkyl radical having not more than 12 carbon atoms or a substituted or non-substituted aryl radical having not more than 12 carbon atoms; R 6 and R 7 may be the same with or different from each other and represent respectively a hydrogen atom, a substituted or non-substituted alkyl radical having not more than 6 carbon atoms, a substituted or non-substituted aryl radical having not more than 12 carbon atoms or an acyl radical having not more than 6 carbon atoms; and R 5 and R 6 may be coupled to each other to form a ring.

Claim 16

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 12, wherein the polyethylene glycol which serves as the thermal solvent is a compound of 150˜10,000 in molecular weight.

Claim 17

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 12, wherein the polyhydric alcohol which serves as the thermal solvent is a ring or chained alcohol having not more than 12 carbon atoms in total and 2 to 6 hydroxy radicals, and which may be substituted by a halogen atom, an alkoxy radical, an acyl radical, or the like.

Claim 18

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the contents of the thermal solvent is 30% to 300% of the quantity of the binder.

Claim 19

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the grain size of the photosensitive silver halide is 0.5 μm to 0.01 μm in diameter.

Claim 20

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the photosensitive silver halide is chemically, spectrally or otherwise sensitizied in a solution of the gelatin and is then mixed with the vinyl pyrrolidone polymer.

Claim 21

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 19, wherein a photosensitive silver halide emulsion which was prepared by chemically, spectrally or otherwise sensitizing in the gelatin solution and then by mixing with the vinyl pyrrolidone polymer, said photosensitive silver halide emulsion is applied to a heat-developable photosensitive layer that is a component layer of the element.

Claim 22

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantity of the photosensitive silver halide and a photosensitive silver salt forming component both used in combination is 0.01 to 1.0 mol per mol of an organic silver salt.

Claim 23

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantity of a sensitizing dye added is 1×10 -4 mol to 1×10 -1 mol per mole of the photosensitive silver halide or a photosensitive silver halide forming component.

Claim 24

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the organic silver salt is a silver salt of benztriazole.

Claim 25

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 23, wherein the organic silver salt is a nitrobenztriazole having the following Formula (3): ##STR10## wherein, R 8 represents a nitro group; R 9 and R 10 may be the same with or the different from each other and represent respectively a halogen atom, a hydroxy group, a sulfo group or the salt thereof, a carboxy group or the salt thereof, a nitro group, a cyano group or a carbamoyl group, a sulfamoyl group, an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, an aryl group or an amino group each of which may have a substituent; m is an integer of 0˜2; and n is an integer of 0˜1; and a benztriazole having the following Formula (4): ##STR11## wherein, R 11 represents a hydroxy group, a sulfo group or the salt thereof, a carboxy group or the salt thereof, a carbamoyl group which is allowed to have a substituent, or a sulfamoyl group which is allowed to have a substituent; R 12 represents a halogen atom, a hydroxy group, a sulfo group, or the salt thereof, a carboxy group or the salt thereof, a nitro group, a cyano group, or, an alkyl group, an aryl group, an alkoxy group, or an amino group each of which may have a sustituent; p is an integer of 1 or 2; and q is an integer 0˜2.

Claim 26

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantity of the organic silver salt used is 0.2 g to 2.0 g per sq. meter of the support.

Claim 27

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the quantity of the reducing agent used is 0.1 mol to 3.0 mol per mol of the organic silver salt.

Claim 28

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dye donor substance is a compound represented by the following formula (5): A-B (5) wherein A represents a coupler residue having a hydrophobic group and B represents a group, which has a water-soluble group, eliminable from the coupler group during the coupling reaction.

Claim 29

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 27, wherein A in the formula (5) is a coupler residue selected from the group consisting of the following formulae (6) to (11): ##STR12## wherein R 21 , R 22 , R 23 and R 24 each represent a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group, an aryl group, an acyl group, an alkyloxycarbonyl group, an aryloxycarbonyl group, an alkylsulfonyl group, an arylsulfonyl group, a carbamoyl group, an acylamino group, an alkoxy group, a sulfamoyl group, a sulfonylamino group or a hydroxyl group, or R 21 and R 22 may be bonded together to form a 5- to 6-membered ring; R 25 represents an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, an arylamino group, an alkylamide group, an arylamide group; R 26 , R 27 and R 28 represent a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkylamide group, an arylamide group; R 29 represents an alkyl group, an aryl group; R 30 represents an arylamino group; R 31 , R 32 , R 33 , R 34 , R 35 and R 36 represent the same groups as represented b R 21 and R 22 as described above.

Claim 30

A heat-developable color photosensitive element as claimed in claim 1, wherein B in the formula (I) is a sulfo group, a carboxyl group, a sulfamoyl group, a sulfino group, a sulfeno group, a thiosulfo group, a dithiosulfo group, a hydroxy sulfonyloxy group, a hydroxy sulfonylthio group, a thiocarboxy group, a carboxyimidic acid group, a hydrazonic acid group, a carbohydrazonic acid group, a hydroximic acid group, a carbohydroximic acid group, a hydroxamic acid group, a carbohydroxamic acid group, a sulfinimidic acid group, a sulfonimidic acid group, a sulfinohydrazonic acid group, a sulfonohydrazonic acid group, a sulfonohydroximic acid group, and a sulfonohydraximic acid group or a group represented by --J--Y wherein J represents a divalent linking group selected from the group consisting of --O--, --S--, ##STR13## --N═N--, --NHCO--, --NHSO 2 -- and --O--SO 2 --; and Y represents an alkyl group or aryl group each having a water-soluble group.