Methine compound and silver halide photographic material containing the same

Abstract

Disclosed is a compound represented by the following formula (I): wherein Z1 represents an atomic group necessary to form a 5- or 6-membered nitrogen-containing heterocyclic ring; Z2 represents an atomic group necessary to form a 5- or 6-membered heterocyclic ring, Z2 may further be substituted, or may be condensed with a hetero ring of a benzene ring; R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a mercapto group, an alkyl group, an alkenyl group, an aryl group, an alkylthio group, an alkenylthio group, or an arylthio group; L1 and L2 each represents a methine group; p1, represents 0 or 1; V1 represents a substituent; and n represents 0, 1 or 2, and when n represents 2, a plurality of V1 may be the same or different.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10 / 631,810 filed Aug. 1, 2003, which is a divisional of 09 / 985,060 filed Nov. 1, 2001, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09 / 522,852 filed Mar. 10, 2000; the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a methine dye which is useful as a coloring agent, a light absorber, a dye for an optical disc, spectral sensitizing dyes for a silver halide photograph, an electrophotograph and a photoelectric conversion device, or a marker for diagnosis, and also relates to a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound and a quaternary salt compound which are raw materials of the methine dye. The present invention further relates to a silver halide photographic material using the methine dye. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Compounds which absorb lights in a visible region develop various colors corresponding to the wavelength of the light...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a novel methine compound that has high speed and causes less residual color in a silver halide photographic material. The compound has a unique structure and can be used as a coloring agent, a light absorber, a dye for optical discs, a spectral sensitizing dye, and a photoelectric conversion dye. The invention also provides a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound and a quaternary salt compound that are raw materials of the methine compound. The compound has a high solubility and can be used in a high speed silver halide photographic material.

Problems solved by technology

However, some conventional compounds are insufficient in spectral sensitivity in a specific emulsion or in a specific wavelength region and have not reached satisfactory levels yet.

Further, with the realization of rapid development processing of a silver halide photographic material and the large addition amount of sensitizing dyes in recent years, a serious problem that sensitizing dyes contained in a silver halide photographic material do not thoroughly dissolve out during processing to color the photographic material (so-called residual color) has arisen.

Dyes having hydrophilic substituents, e.g., a sulfamoyl group and a carbamoyl group, at the nucleus have been investigated as sensitizing dyes which cause less residual color (e.g., JP-A-1-147451, JP-A-61-294429, JP-B-45-3249 and JP-A-61-77843), but these dyes have not reached sufficiently satisfactory level yet.

The sensitizing dyes disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,933 and EP-A-451816 have been certainly improved in residual colors but these dyes are also still not sufficient in the point of a compatibility of residual color with sensitivity.

However, there is a limit in the method of increasing the surface area of a grain by making the aspect ratio of a grain higher, hence it becomes necessary to make the size of a grain larger for improving the light absorption factor of a grain.

However, the forms of these grains are unstable and can be put to practical use with extreme difficulty.

These are all trials to intend to make a dye of the amount more than a saturation adsorption amount adsorb onto a silver halide grain, but any of these is not so effective to improve sensitivity.

On the contrary, there are problems of the increase of intrinsic desensitization and development inhibition in these patents.

However, the objects of these patents were not to intend to increase a light absorption factor.

According to this procedure, two-component connected dyes can be obtained in high yield but sometimes impurities are generated, and these impurities cause desensitization even with an extremely low concentration.

In conclusion, the present situation is that sufficient sensitivity improvement cannot be obtained from these techniques.

Ral Chand Bishwakalma and Thomas Robert Dobles performed spectral sensitization by using two-component connected dyes comprising connecting cyanine adsorptive onto silver halide and non-adsorptive oxonol as disclosed in JP-A-6-27578, but it cannot be said that sufficient improvement of sensitization by the contribution of energy transfer has been attained.

Thus any method of the above patents and literature is insufficient with respect to the light absorption factor per a unit area of silver halide grain and further technical development is required.

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