THERMALLY RESPONSIVE RECORD MATERIAL

Abstract: Thermally responsive record material has an active coating on a substrate, especially paper. The active coating contains chromogenic material and, as co-reactant, bis (hydroxyphenyl)-phenyl alkane, especially bis (4-hydroxyphenyl)-phenyl butane. These co-reactants give improved background and intensity performance especially useful in facsimile papers.

Description: This invention relates to thermally responsive record material. It more particularly relates to such record material in the form of sheets coated with color forming systems comprising chromogenic material and acidic color developer material. This invention particularly concerns a thermally responsive record material with improved background properties. Thermally responsive record material systems are well known in the art and are described in many patents, for example U.S. Patent Nos. 3,539,375; 3,674,535; 3,746,675; 4,151,748; 4,181,771; and 4,246,318 which are hereby incorporated by reference. In these systems, basic chromogenic material and acidic color developer material are contained in a coating on a substrate which, when heated to a suitable temperature, melts or softens to permit said materials to react, thereby producing a colored mark. In the field of thermally responsive record material, thermal sensitivity (response) is defined as the temperature at which a thermally responsive record material produces a colored image of satisfactory intensity (density). Background is defined as the amount of coloration of a thermally responsive record material before imaging and/or in the unimaged areas of an imaged material. The ability to maintain the thermal sensitivity of a thermally responsive record material while reducing the background coloration is a much sought after and very valuable feature. One of the uses for thermally responsive record material which is enjoying increasing importance is facsimile reproduction. Alternative terms for facsimile are telecopying and remote copying. In the facsimile system, images transmitted electronically are reproduced as hard copy. One of the important requirements for thermally responsive record material to be used in facsimile equipment is that it have good (low coloration) background properties. Increases in the sensitivity of thermally responsive record material have been achieved through the incorporation of a phenyl hydroxynaphthoate compound or a hydroxyanilide compound in the color forming composition along with the chromogenic material and developer material as disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,470,057 or U.S. Patent No. 4,535, 347, respectively, by Kenneth D. Glanz. Such sensitizer materials can be advantageously used in combination with the present invention. The present invention is based on the discovery that the use of a particular class of Bisphenol as co-reactant in thermally responsive record material produces a product with very satisfactory thermal sensitivity and much improved background coloration characteristics. The present invention accordingly, provides thermally responsive record material comprising a support member bearing a thermally sensitive color forming composition comprising chromogenic material and as co-reactant therefor a bisphenol compound of the structure wherein n₁ and n₂ are each 0, 1 or 2 such that n₁ + n₂ is at least 2. As with conventional thermally responsive record material, the record material of the invention typically provides chromogenic material and color developer material (co-reactant) in a coating on a support in which they are in contiguous relationship, usually as finely divided solid particles dispersed in a suitable binder, optionally with other components of the coating. The color change which generates an image arises on exposure of the coating to a temperature high enough to cause a color forming reaction between chromogenic material and color developer material. Typically the color forming reaction occurs when one or more components of the coating melts, softens or sublimes thereby enabling reactive color forming contact. The record material includes a substrate or support material which is generally in sheet form. For purposes of this invention, sheets also mean webs, ribbons, tapes, belts, films, cards and the like. Sheets denote articles having two large surface dimensions and a comparatively small thickness dimension. The substrate or support material can be opaque, transparent or translucent and could, itself, be colored or not. The material can be fibrous including, for example, paper and filamentous synthetic materials. It can be a film including, for example, cellophane and synthetic polymeric sheets cast, extruded, or otherwise formed. The gist of this invention resides in the color forming composition coated on the substrate. The kind or type of substrate material is not critical. Although not required to practice and demonstrate the beneficial properties of the claimed invention, the inclusion of certain sensitizing materials in the color-forming system provides a further improvement in properties, especially increases in sensitivity. Materials such as phenyl 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoate, stearamide and p-hydroxyoctadecnanilide are useful as such sensitizing material. The components of the color forming system are in a contiguous relationship, substantially homogeneously distributed throughout the color forming system, preferably in the form of a coated layer deposited on the substrate. In manufacturing the rcord material, a coating composition is prepared which includes a fine dispersion of the components of the color forming system, polymeric binder material, surface active agents and other additives in an aqueous coating medium. The composition can additionally contain inert pigments, such as clay, talc, aluminum hydroxide, calcined kaolin clay and calcium carbonate; synthetic pigments, such as urea-formaldehyde resin pigments; natural waxes such as carnauba wax; synthetic waces; lubricants such as zinc stearate; wetting agents and defoamers. The color forming system components are substantially insoluble in the dispersion vehicle (preferably water) and are ground to an individual average particle size of between about 1 micron to about 10 microns, preferably about 1 to about 3 microns. The polymeric binder material is substantially vehicle soluble, although latexes are also eligible in some instances. Preferred water soluble binders include polyvinyl alcohol, hyroxy ethylcellulose, methylcellulose, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, starch, modified starches, gelatin and the like. Eligible latex materials include polyacrylates, polyvinylacetates, polystyrene, and the like. The polymeric binder is used to protect the coated materials from brushing and handling forces occasioned by storage and use of the thermal sheets. Binder should be present in an amount to afford such protection and in an amount less than will interfere with achieving reactive contact between color forming reactive materials. Coating weights can effectively be about 3 to about 9 grams per square meter (gsm) and preferably about 5 to about 6 gsm. The practical amount of color forming materials is controlled by economic considerations, functional parameters aminobenzylidene-, halo-, and anilino-substituted fluorans (for example, as disclosed in U.S. Patent Nos. 3,624,107; 3,627,787; 3,641,011; 3,642,828; and 3,681,390); spirodipyrans (U.S. Patent No. 3,971,808); and pyridine and pyrazine compounds (for example, as disclosed in U.S. Patent Nos. 3,775,424 and 3,853,869). Other specifically eligible chromogenic compounds, not limiting the invention in any way, are: 3-diethylamino-6-methyl-7-anilinofluoran (U.S. Patent Nos. 3,681,390); 3-diethylamino-6-methyl-7-anilinofluoran (U.S. patent No. 3,681,390); 3-diethylamino-6-methyl-7-­ (2′,4′-di-methylanilino)fluoran (U.S. patent No. 4,330,473); 7-(1-ethyl-2-methylindol-3-yl)-7-(4-diethylamino-2-­ ethoxyphenyl)-5,7-di-hydrofuro[3,4-b]pyridin-5-one (U.S. patent No. 4,246,318); 3-diethylamino-7-­ (2-chloroanilino)fluoran (U.S. patent No. 3,920,510); 3-(N-methyl-cyclohexylamino)-6-methyl-7-anilinofluoran (U.S. Patent No. 3,959,571); 7-(1-octyl-2-methylindol-3-yl)-7-­ (4-diethylamino-2-ethoxyphen yl)-5,7-­ di-hydrofuro[3,4-b]pyridin-5-one; 3-diethylamino-7,8-benzofluoran; 3,3-bis(1-ethyl-2-methylindol-3-yl)phthalide; 3-diethylamino-7-anilinofluoran; 3-diethylamino-7-benzylaminofluoran; 3-phenyl-7-dibenzylamino-2,2′-spiro-di[2H-1-benzopyran]; 3-(2-hydroxy-4-diethylaminophenyl)-3-(2,4-dimethyoxy-5-­ anilinophenyl)phthalide; 3-(2-hydroxy-4-diethylaminophenyl)-­ 3-(2,4-dimethoxy-5-(4-chloroanilino)phenyl)phthalide; and mixtures of any two or more of the above. The following examples are given to illustrate some of the features of the present invention and should not be considered as limiting. In these examples all parts are by weight, all solutions are in water and all measurements are in the metric system, unless otherwise stated. The developer materials of the present invention can be made by procedures described in the prior art, for example In these examples separate dispersions comprising the chromogenic compound (component A), the acidic developer material (Component B), and the sensitizer material (Component C) were prepared. Surfynol 104 is a di-tertiary acetylene glycol surface active agent produced by Air Products and Chemicals Inc. Nopko NDW is a sulfonated caster oil produced by Nopko Chemical Company. The chromogenic compounds employed in the examples are listed in Table 1. In Table 3 are listed various mixtures of Components A, B and C including the components added, and the wet parts by weight of each. In all cases the following materials were also added to the resulting mixtures: 1. Calcined kaolin clay (designated hereinbelow as "Clay"). 2. A 10% solution of polyvinyl alcohol in water (designated hereinbelow as "PVA"); 3. Water. 4. A 21% emulsion of zinc stearate (designated hereinbelow as zinc stearate). Each mixture of Table 3 was applied to paper and dried, yielding a dry coat weight of about 5.2 to about 5.9 gsm. The thermally sensitive record material sheets coated with one of the mixtures of Table 3 were imaged by contacting the coated sheet with a metallic imaging block at 300°F for 5 seconds. THe intensity of the image was measured by means of a reflectance reading using a Macxbeth reflectance densitometer. A value of about 0.9 or greater usually indicates good image development. The intensities of the images are presented in Table 4. The background coloration of the examples was measured by means of a reflectance reading using a Bausch & Lomb Opacimeter. The higher the value the less background coloration. The background data are entered in Table 5. From the data of Tables 4 and 5 it is readily apparent that thermally responsive recording materials comprising the developer materials of the present invention produce acceptable image intensities and greatly improved background coloration compared to corresponding thermally responsive recording material comprising previously known developer material.

Claims: 1. Thermally responsive record material comprising a support member bearing a thermally sensitive color forming composition comprising chromogenic material and as co-reactant therefor a bisphenol compound of the structure , wherein n₁ and n₂ are each 0, 1 or 2 such that n₁ + n₂ is at least 2. 2. Record material as claimed in claim 1 in which the bisphenol is one or more of 1-phenyl-1,1-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) butane; 4-phenyl-2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)butane; and 1-phenyl-2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) butane. 3. Record material as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2 in which the chromogenic material is one or more of 3-diethylamino-6-methyl-7-anilinofluoran; 7-(1-ethyl-2-­ methylindol-3-yl)-7-(4-diethylamino-2-ethoxyphenyl-5, 7-dihydrofuro[3,4-b]pyridin-5-one; 3-diethylamino-7-­ (2-chloroanilino)fluoran; 3-(N-methylcyclohexylamino)-6-­ methyl-7-anilinofluoran; 7-(1-octyl-2-methylindol-3-yl)-7-­ (4-diethylamino-2-ethoxyphenyl)5,7-dihydrofuro[3,4-b]pyridin-­ 5-one; 3′phenyl-7-dibenzylamino-2,2′-spiro-dil[2H-1-­ benzopyran]; 3,3-bis(4-dimethylaminophenyl)-6-­ dimethylaminophthalide; and 3-(2-hydroxy-4-­ diethylaminophenyl)-3-(2,4-dimethoxy-5-(4-chloroanilino) phenyl)phthalide. 4. Record material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 which further comprises a binder comprising polyvinyl alcohol, methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl, methylcellulose, starch, hydroxyethylcellulose, styrene-butadiene latex or a mixture thereof. 5. Record material as claimed in claim 4 in which the binder is a mixture of polyvinyl alcohol, methylcellulose and styrenebutadiene latex.

Inventors: PETERSEN, THOMAS C., VERVACKE, STEVEN L.
Applicants: APPLETON PAPERS INC.
Application year: 1986
Main classification: B41M5
IPC codes: B41M5