A Study on Image Stability of Chelating Thermal Dye Transfer Printing System

Abstract

Thermal dye transfer printing systems have tow major problems on image stability, i.e., poor light stability and heat-induced degradation of image edges. To counteract these problems, we have developed a new system utilizing chelating reaction of certain azo dyes with metal cation-providing compounds to form dye-metal complexes. In this study, we have found that the change of the oxidation potential of the dyes and the anti-oxidation ability of the metal cation strengthened the light stability.