JP2965616B2 - Image recording body and image recording method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image recording medium, and can be used for image transfer, printing, printing, and the like.

[Prior art] In recent years, as photoconductors for electrophotography, Se, Se-based alloys, CdS, Zn
O, those using alternative organic semiconductor inorganic semiconductors such as TiO _2, a-Si has been proposed, which is mounted on various reproduction apparatus. An electrophotographic photoreceptor using an organic semiconductor generally has a so-called function-separated structure including a conductive support, a charge generation layer, and a charge transfer layer. The charge generation layer often contains a photoconductive organic dye as a main component. Further, the charge transfer layer often contains a low molecular donor compound mixed in a polymer. Therefore, deterioration due to light and deterioration due to ozone are inevitable, and furthermore, the mechanical strength is not sufficient, and a satisfactory electrophotographic photoreceptor has not yet been obtained.

Further, an image recording method using an inorganic material (barium titanate) as a ferroelectric substance and utilizing a change in the relative dielectric constant of the ferroelectric substance due to a temperature change is known before this application (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-1990).
302274).

It is described that this method uses a drum in which barium titanate having a particle size of 5 to 30 μm is coated on an epoxy resin as an electrostatic latent image holder, and utilizes a surface potential difference caused by a temperature change of a relative dielectric constant. However, the following problems have not been solved.

1) It is difficult to charge the ferroelectric substance because there is no conductive layer.

2) Since the relative dielectric constant of the ferroelectric substance is a large value of 4000 to 10,000, it is difficult to charge by a normal method.

3) It is considered that the homogeneity and surface properties of the substance are inferior because particles having a large particle diameter are separated.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention utilizes a surface potential change caused by a change in the relative dielectric constant and resistance of an image forming layer without using a photoreceptor. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image recording medium to be used, an electrophotographic method with very little deterioration due to a simple configuration, and an image recording medium that can be used for the method.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present inventors have conducted intensive studies on ferroelectric polymers, and have found that a layer containing a ferroelectric polymer as a main component provided on a conductive support can be optionally formed by an appropriate method. It has been found that, by heating by an appropriate method and raising the temperature, the charging in the temperature rising portion is immediately attenuated, and the present invention has been achieved.

That is, the configuration of the present invention is an image recording medium and an image recording method as described below.

(1) In an image recording body in which a ferroelectric substance layer laminated on a conductive support or a layer adjacent thereto contains a substance that generates heat by light absorption, the ferroelectric substance is formed of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene. An image recording material, which is a copolymer, wherein the substance that generates heat by light absorption is a phthalocyanine dye or a naphthalocyanine dye.

(2) After charging the image recording medium described in the above (1), the image recording medium is irradiated with light to generate heat of the light absorbing material, thereby increasing the temperature of the light irradiation part to attenuate the surface potential of the part. After forming an electrostatic latent image by this, development with toner,
Image recording method to transfer.

The image recording method using the image recording medium, first, after charging the surface of the ferroelectric material layer by an appropriate charging method such as corona charging, contact charging, and the like with a laser beam or a thermal head according to an image signal. By heating the ferroelectric material layer, the temperature of that portion is raised to attenuate the surface potential, and the resulting electrostatic latent image of the image is developed and transferred with colored charged particles such as toner to form the image. Is formed.

Therefore, if the ferroelectric substance layer or a layer adjacent thereto contains a substance that generates heat by light absorption, the sensitivity of the image recording body can be increased.

The conductive support in the present invention is made of aluminum (A
l), nickel (Ni), stainless steel, copper (Cu) and other metal foils, or plastic films, glass, paper, and other electrically insulating thin-film materials on the surface of Al, Ni, Au, Cu, TiO ₂ ,
A conductive material provided by forming a conductive material such as ITO (indium oxide doped with tin) into a thin layer by means of vapor deposition, sputtering, lamination, or the like is used.

Image forming layer The image forming layer is formed on the above-mentioned conductive support, and may be composed of only a ferroelectric material layer or a ferroelectric material layer and a light absorption-heating layer. The ferroelectric material layer is mainly composed of a ferroelectric polymer material. Hereinafter, those substances will be exemplified.

Ferroelectric polymer substance Polyvinylidene fluoride, copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene, copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and tetrafluoroethylene, polyvinylidene cyanide and the like.

Light Absorption-Exothermic Substances Dyes and metals are components having the function of absorbing light and heating the ferroelectric polymer substance.

Dyes: cyanine dye, squarylium dye, methine dye,
There are naphthoquinone dye, quinone imine dye, quinone diimine dye, phthalocyanine dye, naphthalocyanine dye, dithiol metal complex dye, anthraquinone dye, azo dye, trisazo dye, pyrylium salt dye, aminium salt dye, and the like. Especially cyanine dyes,
Phthalocyanine dyes, naphthalocyanine dyes, and dithiol metal complex dyes are effective because of their large molecular extinction coefficient.

Some typical examples of this infrared absorbing dye are as follows (compound
No.1 to No.13).

These dyes also have a large absorption in the infrared region,
This is advantageous in system design.

Metals Cr, Ge, Ni, Pt, Ti, Si, nichrome, etc., especially Cr, Ge,
Ni and Pt are also structurally advantageous because they also act as conductive substances.

A specific example of the configuration of the image recording medium of the present invention using the above substances will be described below. As shown in FIG. 1, a conductive layer 2 on a support 1 and a ferroelectric polymer layer 3 containing a dye thereon Is provided.

FIG. 2 shows an example in which a light-absorbing conductive layer 4 made of chromium, germanium or the like is provided on a support 1, and a layer 5 made of a ferroelectric polymer substance is provided thereon.

When the image recording medium of the present invention is positively or negatively charged by an appropriate method (corona charging, contact charging, etc.) and irradiated with a semiconductor laser or the like corresponding to image information, the irradiated portion is heated,
The surface potential attenuates and an electrostatic latent image is formed.

[Examples] Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to Examples.

Example 1 A methyl ethyl ketone solution of a copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene (copolymerization ratio: 70/30 (molar ratio) (French) manufactured by Atochem) was prepared, and chromium was deposited to a thickness of about 1000 mm. Apply on a polyester film (75 μm thick) with a doctor blade, 100 ° C for 5 minutes, 130 ° C for 2 minutes.
After drying for 5 minutes, a ferroelectric polymer layer having a thickness of 5.0 μm was provided.

The above chromium deposition layer has low electric resistance (1.29 × 10 ⁻⁵ Ω ·
cm), low thermal conductivity (0.202 cm ² · s ^-1 ), and functions as a conductive substance and a light absorbing and exothermic substance.

The image recording medium composed of the polyester film / chromium layer / ferroelectric polymer layer thus produced was positively charged by a corona charger, and when a surface potential of +800 V was reached, a semiconductor laser beam (oscillation wavelength of 780 nm) , Spot system 5μ
m) was partially irradiated from the ferroelectric polymer phase side at an irradiation intensity of 12 mW, and reversal development was performed with a positive polarity toner. As a result, the toner adhered only to the semiconductor laser light irradiated portion.

Example 2 A copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene (copolymerization ratio: 65/35 (molar ratio), manufactured by Atochem, France) and 3% by weight of an infrared absorbing dye (Na A phthalocyanine compound (compound No. 7) dissolved in tetrahydrofuran is coated with a doctor blade on a 75 μm-thick polyester film on which aluminum is deposited to a thickness of 1000 mm, with a doctor blade for 5 minutes at 100 ° C. and 2 minutes at 130 ° C. After drying, a ferroelectric polymer layer containing a 5 μm-thick infrared absorbing dye was provided. Λ _max of the naphthalocyanine dye of Compound No. 7
Is 772 nm and the extinction coefficient is 4.83 × 10 ⁵ mol ⁻¹ · l · cm ⁻¹ (measured using tetrahydrofuran as a solvent).

The image recording body composed of the polyester film / aluminum layer / infrared absorbing dye-containing ferroelectric polymer layer thus produced was positively charged with a corona charger in the same manner as in Example 1, and the semiconductor laser light was partially irradiated. Irradiation and reversal development with positive polarity toner, toner adhered only to the irradiated part. In both Examples 1 and 2, it is considered that the temperature of the irradiated portion is increased by the irradiation of the semiconductor laser light and the surface potential is selectively attenuated to form a toner image.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, an excellent image can be easily recorded as compared with a conventional photoconductor.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are cross-sectional explanatory views showing the configuration of a specific example of the image recording medium of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Support, 2 ... Conductive layer, 3 ... Ferroelectric polymer material layer containing dye, 4 ... Light absorbing conductive layer, 5 ... Layer composed of ferroelectric polymer material.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-49-106330 (JP, A) JP-A-3-282487 (JP, A) JP-A-1-161370 (JP, A) JP-A-2-157864 (JP) JP-A-64-49048 (JP, A) JP-A-51-9452 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G03G 5/00-5/16 G03G 15/00 115

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image recording medium comprising a ferroelectric substance layer laminated on a conductive support or an adjacent layer containing a substance generating heat by light absorption, wherein the ferroelectric substance is vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene. Wherein the substance that generates heat by light absorption is a phthalocyanine dye or a naphthalocyanine dye. 2. After charging the image recording medium according to the above (1), the image recording medium is irradiated with light to generate heat of the light absorbing material, and the temperature of the light irradiation part is raised to lower the surface potential of the part. An image recording method comprising: forming an electrostatic latent image by attenuating the image; developing the image with toner; and transferring the image.