Abstract: The invention provides a photothermographic material containing, on a support, an image forming layer having at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt and a reducing agent, and at least one non-photosensitive layer, in which the non-photosensitive layer contains a crosslinking agent precursor, in which the crosslinking agent precursor is a compound which releases a crosslinking agent which crosslinks a binder of the non-photosensitive layer at the time of thermal development. A photothermographic material in which water resistance and scratch resistance of an image have been improved is provided.

Abstract: The present invention provides a black and white photothermographic material having, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a silver salt of a fatty acid, a reducing agent, and a binder, wherein the black and white photothermographic material includes a compound represented by formula (1) as the reducing agent, a coupler which reacts with an oxidation product of the compound represented by formula (1) to form a dye, and a compound which reacts with an oxidation product of the compound represented by formula (1) to form a product that has substantially no absorption in the visible light region: wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and R5 represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a heterocyclic group. An image forming method using the black and white photothermographic material is also provided.

Abstract: An image forming method comprising by imagewise exposing a photothermographic material comprising at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent, and a binder, on at least one surface of a support, and thermally developing the photothermographic material at a line speed of 20 mm/sec or higher using an image forming apparatus, wherein the reducing agent is a bisphenol compound which has at a meso-position a substituent with ring structure or a substituent having an unsaturated bond.

Abstract: The present invention provides an image forming method using an image recording apparatus that includes a laser irradiating means for laser scanning of a photothermographic material that has a support and includes on at least one surface thereof a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent and a binder, and a conveying means for guiding the photothermographic material in a sub-scanning direction to a thermal development unit, wherein the reducing agent is a specific bisphenol compound. The invention also provides another image forming method including carrying out thermal development, with an interval time equal to or less than 12 seconds, of the photothermographic material.

Abstract: The present invention provides a black and white photothermographic material including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, and a binder on a support, wherein the black and white photothermographic material contains a reducing agent represented by formula (1) and a coupler which reacts with an oxidation product of the reducing agent to form a dye and is represented by formula (2), (3), (4), or (5); and a density obtained by the dye at a maximum absorption wavelength of the dye is from 0.005 to 0.5 when an image density is 2.0. A photothermographic material which exhibits excellent image tone and excellent image storage stability is provided.

Abstract: The present invention provides a black and white photothermographic material including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent represented by formula (1), a coupler which reacts with an oxidation product of the reducing agent to form a dye, and at least one development accelerator represented by formula (A-1) or (A-2) on a support: wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and R5 represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a heterocyclic group; Q1-NHNH-Q2??Formula (A-1) wherein Q1 represents an aromatic group or a heterocyclic group; and Q2 represents a carbamoyl group or the like; wherein R11 represents an alkyl group, an acyl group, an acylamino group, or the like; R12 represents a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and R13 and R14 represent a substituent.

Abstract: The present invention provides a black and white photothermographic material including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, and a binder on a support, wherein the black and white photothermographic material contains a compound represented by the following formula (1) and at least one compound represented by a formula selected from the group consisting of the following formulae (2), (3), (4), and (5): wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent which substitutes for a hydrogen atom on a benzene ring; and R5 represents an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a heterocyclic group; An image forming method using the black and white photothermographic material and a fluorescent intensifying screen is also provided.

Abstract: A photothermographic material comprising an image forming layer, on at least one side of a support, comprising at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive silver salt, a reducing agent, and a binder, wherein 50% by weight or more of the binder is formed by a linear polymer, and wherein a mean grain size (D0.5) of developed silver in an image portion having a density of 0.5 and a mean grain size (D3.0) of developed silver in an image portion having a density of 3.0 satisfy a relationship represented by the following equation (1): D0.5/D3.0?1.1??Equation (1) A photothermographic material having a high image quality with high image density and excellent color tone of developed silver images is provided.

Abstract: The present invention provides a silver halide photosensitive material and a photothermographic material having, on at least one side of a support, at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, and a reducing agent for the organic silver salt, wherein the silver halide photosensitive material and the photothermographic material contain a phthalocyanine compound represented by the following formula (PC-1): wherein, M represents a hydrogen atom or a metal atom; R1, R4, R5, R8, R9, R12, R13, and R16 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; at least one of R1, R4, R5, R8, R9, R12, R13, and R16 represents an electron-attracting group; and R2, R3, R6, R7, R10, R11, R14, and R15 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent.

Abstract: The present invention provides a phthalocyanine compound represented by the following formula (PC-1): Formula (PC-1) (wherein M represents a hydrogen atom or a metal atom, R1, R4, R5, R8, R9, R12, R13, and R16 each represents independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent, at least one of R1, R4, R5, R8, R9, R12, R13, and R16 is a group represented by formula (II), and R2, R3, R6, R7, R10, R11, R14, and R15 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent); Formula (11) —SO2R17 (wherein R17 represents an alkyl group, aryl group or a heterocyclic group having a hydrophilic group). A novel phthalocyanine compound having high durability and useful as a functional dye is provided.

Abstract: The present invention relates to, a thermally developable photosensitive material containing a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, photosensitive silver halide and a reducing agent on at least one surface of a transparent substrate, wherein a fog density value immediately after thermal developing treatment is 0.20 or less, a value of b0* in the following equation (1) at a fog density portion satisfies ?20?b0*<?4, and a change in an image tone from immediately after thermal developing treatment to after a point when an amount of time has passed as a value of a color difference ?E as defined in the equation (1) is any one of (a) 1.2 or less at 9 months under an environment of 30° C. and 60% RH, (b) 1.2 or less at 3 months under an environment of 40° C. and 40% RH, or (c) 0.9 or less at 1 week under an environment of 45° C. and 40% RH.

Abstract: A photothermographic material comprising a support, and an image-forming layer and a non-photosensitive layer provided on a surface of the support, wherein the image-forming layer and the non-photosensitive layer are adjacent to each other; the image-forming layer includes a photosensitive silver halide, a first non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a first reducing agent, a polyhalogen compound and a binder; and the non-photosensitive layer includes a second non-photosensitive organic silver salt.

Abstract: A photothermographic material having, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent for silver ions, and a binder, wherein the photothermographic material includes a compound represented by the following formula (I) and a coupler which reacts with an oxidation product of the compound represented by formula (I) to form a dye, and a density obtained by the dye at a maximum absorption wavelength of the dye is from 0.005 to 0.5 when an image density is from 1.1 to 1.3: A photothermographic material which exhibits excellent image tone and excellent storage stability is provided.

Abstract: A photothermographic material of the present invention contains a slipping agent. One slipping agent is a liquid at a ordinary temperature, and an volatile rate of the slipping agent at 120° C. for one hour is 0.5% by mass or less as measured by a thermo-balance. The other slipping agent is that a permeating rate to the transportation rollers, when the transportation rollers are immersed in the slipping agent at 120° C. for 2 hours, is 6% by mass or less.

Abstract: A black and white photothermographic material including, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a silver salt of a fatty acid, a reducing agent for silver ions, and a binder, wherein the black and white photothermographic material includes a compound represented by the following formula (I) as the reducing agent and a compound represented by the following formula (BC-1) as a coupler: A black and white photothermographic material which exhibits low fog, high image density, excellent image tone, and excellent raw stock storability is provided.

Abstract: A color photothermographic material having, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent for silver ions, and a coupler which reacts with an oxidation product of the reducing agent to form a dye, wherein the photosensitive silver halide has an average silver iodide content of 40 mol % or higher, and the color photothermographic material contains a compound represented by the following formula (I) as the reducing agent. A color photothermographic material which exhibits low fog and excellent storage stability is provided.

Abstract: A photothermographic material having, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent, and a binder, and at least one non-photosensitive layer, wherein the photothermographic material contains a water-insoluble azomethine dye and a metal phthalocyanine dye represented by formula (PC-1): wherein M represents a metal atom; R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, and R8 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and at least one of them is an electron-attracting group. The invention provides a photothermographic material which exhibits preferable image tone and excellent image storability.

Abstract: A photothermographic material including, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent for silver ions, and a binder, wherein the photosensitive silver halide has an average silver iodide content of 40 mol % or higher, and the photothermographic material comprises a compound represented by the following formula (I) as the reducing agent: wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; R5 and R6 each independently represent an alkyl group, an aryl group, a heterocyclic group, an acyl group, or a sulfonyl group; and R7 represents R11—O—CO—, R12—CO—CO—, R13—NH—CO—, R14—SO2—, R15—W—C(R16)(R17)—, R19—SO2NHCO—, R20—CONHCO—, R21—SO2NHSO2—, R22—CONHSO2— or (M)1/nOSO2—. A photothermographic material, which exhibits low fog and excellent storage stability, and an image forming method are provided.

Abstract: The invention provides a photothermographic material containing, on a support, an image forming layer having at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt and a reducing agent, and at least one non-photosensitive layer, in which the non-photosensitive layer contains a crosslinking agent precursor, in which the crosslinking agent precursor is a compound which releases a crosslinking agent which crosslinks a binder of the non-photosensitive layer at the time of thermal development. A photothermographic material in which water resistance and scratch resistance of an image have been improved is provided.

Abstract: The invention provides an image forming method for forming an image using a photothermographic material having an image forming layer on both sides of a support, wherein the image forming layer contains at least a photosensitive silver halide, an organic silver salt, a reducing agent for silver ions represented by the following formula (I), a coupler, and a binder: wherein R1, R2, R3, and R4 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; R5 and R6 each independently represent an alkyl group, an aryl group, a heterocyclic group, an acyl group, or a sulfonyl group; R7 represents R11—O—CO—, R12—CO—CO—, R13—NH—CO—, R14—SO2—, R15—W—C(R16)(R17)(R18)—, R19—SO2NHCO—, R20—CONHCO—, R21—SO2NHSO2—, R22—CONHSO2— or (M)1/nOSO2—; and M represents a cation having a valency of n. An image forming method using a photothermographic material which exhibits low fog and excellent storage stability is provided.