Analysis of patents, publications and our own experimental data concerning
thermally developed photographic materials based on silver organic salts (A
gO2CxH2x-1, x = 10-22) makes it possible to outline the prospects of their
future development as well as the trends in the scientific activity devoted
to optimizing these materials. The study of the competing processes of the
catalytic thermal development of silver carboxylates, in conjunction with
the developing agents, and catalytic thermal degradation elf silver carboxy
lates in the absence of developers, has revealed that radical reactions pla
y a significant role in these processes. Because the formation of radicals
adversely affect the stability of thermally developed materials we have fou
nd that it is very important to use developing agents that are inhibitors o
f radical processes. We have studied the effect of the composition and ingr
edient ratios in the photosensitive films on the sensitivity of thermally d
eveloped photographic papers (TDPP), both spectrally and chemically sensiti
zed. The correlation between structure and the developing ability of reduci
ng agents used in TDPP is established. The sensitivity of TDPP can be incre
ased both through the modification of the light-sensitive composition with
benzotriazolidophosphate and through increasing the efficiency of sulfur se
nsitization with amines. Also, boric acid is found to be an efficient cross
linking agent for the polymer binder in TDPP, polyvinylbutyral. In addition
, high stability of TDPP can be achieved by using a reducing agent encapsul
ated within a polyvinylacetade caplet.