Abstract

Hard-copy images can be produced by a range of methods, from the one-off such as painting to the multiple-millions via offset printing.

Kodak has a long history of enabling both individuals and businesses to produce images, usually in hard-copy form. These images invariably contain polymers, particles and surfactants. The polymers act as binders and rheology modifiers, the particles as colourants or to modify mechanical properties, while surfactants stabilise bulk and dispersed interfaces or are used to control wetting processes. The various components are combined in a liquid medium (preferably water!) and then deposited in a precise manner on a substrate, which is usually a polymer film. Deposition may be as either a continuous film (conventional photography) where a further process will generate the image or as a pattern (inkjet printing) that forms the image itself.

In this presentation, the science behind some of the applications of soft matter in Kodak’s European Reseach Laboratories will be described. The application areas range from conventional silver halide technology to coatings for inkjet papers. The scientific topics include rheology, polymer-surfactant interactions, multilayer thin-film coating, physical and chemical gelation, and particle stabilisation.