Claims
- 1. Filamentary particles of a lithium salt of a conjugated polymerizable polyacetylene having at least one terminal carboxylic acid or carboxylate group and a mixture of said polyacetylenes; said filamentary particles having a length to width ratio of at least 5:1.
- 2. The lithium salt filaments of claim 1 wherein the average length of said filaments between about 5 and about 50,000 μm.
- 3. The lithium salt filaments of claim 1 wherein the length to width ratio is between about 5:1 and about 5,000:1.
- 4. The lithium salt filaments of claim 1 wherein said salt contains from 6 to 64 carbon atoms.
- 5. The lithium salt filaments of claim 4 wherein said salt contains from 10 to 40 carbon atoms.
- 6. The lithium salt filaments of claim 5 wherein said salt is the lithium salt of a polyacetylene selected from the group consisting of pentacosa-10,12-diynoic acid; tricosa-10,12-diynoic acid; heneicosa-10,12-diynoic acid, eicosa-5,7-diynoic acid and their corresponding lower alkyl esters.
- 7. A photosensitive coating composition suitable for image development by exposure to a source of radiation which comprises an inert matrix containing an effective imageable amount of the lithium salt filaments of claim 1 wherein the filamentary particles have a length to width ratio of greater than 5:1 and the average length of the filaments is between about 10 and about 50 μm.
- 8. The composition of claim 7 wherein said matrix is water or a solution or dispersion of a natural or synthetic polymer or a mixture thereof.
- 9. The composition of claim 8 wherein the matrix is an aqueous solution of gelatin.
- 10. The composition of claim 7 wherein said salt is the lithium salt of a polyacetylene selected from the group consisting of pentacosa-10,12-diynoic acid; tricosa-10,12-diynoic acid; heneicosa-10,12-diynoic acid; eicosa-5,7-diynoic acid and their corresponding lower alkyl esters and mixtures thereof.
- 11. The lithium salt of claim 6 wherein said salt is the lithium salt of pentacosa-10,12-diynoic acid.
- 12. The composition of claim 10 wherein said salt is the lithium salt of pentacosa-10,12-diynoic acid.
- 13. A substrate carrying the composition of claim 7.
- 14. A substrate carrying the dry composition of claim 7.
- 15. A dosimeter comprising a substrate of claim 14.
- 16. A radiation indicator comprising a substrate of claim 14.
- 17. The process for preparing the lithium salt filaments of claim 1 which comprises the following steps in sequence:
(a) mixing a solution of a conjugated, polymerizable polyacetylene having at least one terminal carboxylic acid or carboxylate functional group in a matrix which is inert to said polyacetylene and any polymerized product thereof; (b) contacting the carboxylic acid and/or carboxylate terminal group of the polyacetylene with a lithium salt sensitizer reactive with said carboxylic acid and/or carboxylate group to form a solution of the lithium salt of said polyacetylene; (c) quenching the resulting matrix/lithium salt solution of (b) to below room temperature and holding at that temperature for a period sufficient to nucleate and precipitate the lithium/polyacetylene salt in the matrix; (d) optionally heating and holding the product of step (c) until the filaments of the lithium/polyacetylene salt form and grow to an average length greater than 5 μm and a length to width ratio of at least 5:1; (e) optionally reducing the length of the filaments by mechanical means; (f) optionally repeating steps (d) through (e) until a desired filament length and radiation sensitivity is obtained and (g) recovering the filamentary salt product of claim 1 as the product of the process.
- 18. The process of claim 17 wherein the lithium salt sensitizer is selected from the group consisting of a lithium halide, lithium nitrate; lithium sulfate; lithium carbonate; a lithium alkyl carboxylate; a lithium aryl carboxylate and a mixture thereof.
- 19. The process of claim 17 wherein step (d) is carried out at a temperature of between about 40° and about 100° C.
- 20. The process of claim 17 wherein said matrix is selected from the group consisting of gelatin, collagen, agar, xanthan gum, synthetic polymer and mixtures thereof.
- 21. The process of claim 17 wherein said matrix is an aqueous solution of gelatin.
- 22. The process of claim 17 wherein said matrix is water.
- 23. The process of claim 17 wherein the weight ratio of lithium/polyacetylene salt to matrix in step (b) is between about 100:1 and 1:10.
- 24. The filamentary salt of claim 1 dispersed in an inert matrix suitable for coating a substrate wherein the weight ratio of said salt to matrix is between about 4:1 and about 1:5.
- 25. The filamentary salt of claim 24 dispersed in a film-forming matrix selected from the group consisting of gelatin, collagen, agar, xanthan gum, a synthetic film forming polymer and a mixture thereof.
- 26. The filamentary salt of claim 1 dispersed in dry gelatin.
- 27. The process which comprises contacting a dispersion of platelets of a lithium salt of a conjugated polyacetylene with at least 0.1 wt. % of the filaments of claim 1 for a period sufficient to convert said platelets to filaments.
- 28. The process wherein the filamentary salt product of the process of claim 17 is contacted with a lithium/acetylene salt composed of plate-like particles and held at an elevated temperature for a period sufficient to convert the plate-like particles to filamentary particles.
- 29. The process wherein the filamentary salt product of claim 17 is mixed with a solution of a polymerizable, conjugated polyacetylene having at least one terminal carboxylic acid or carboxylate group or a mixture thereof and contacted with a solution of a lithium salt sensitizer selected from the group consisting of a lithium halide, lithium nitrate, lithium sulfate, lithium carbonate, a lithium alkyl carboxylate, a lithium aryl carboxylate and mixtures thereof.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of Provisional Application Serial No. 60/459,559, filed Apr. 1, 2003.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
60459559 |
Apr 2003 |
US |
Child |
10789007 |
Feb 2004 |
US |