Patent ID: 7056650

Claim:
A thermally developable imaging material comprising a support and having thereon one or more thermally developable imaging layers and an outermost protective layer over said one or more thermally developable imaging layers, said one or more thermally developable imaging layers comprising a hydrophilic binder or water-dispersible latex polymer, and in reactive association: a) a source of reducible silver ions comprising an organic silver salt, and b) an ascorbic acid or reductone reducing agent for said reducible silver ions, and said outermost protective layer having a surface pH less than 6 and comprising a positively-charged latex polymer, said positively-charged latex polymer comprising at least 50% by dry weight of total protective layer film-forming components and from about 0.4 to about 20 mol % of recurring units derived from ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable monomers comprising cationic groups.