Patent 7147998 was granted and assigned to Eastman Kodak on December, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Thermally developable imaging materials have an outermost protective layer that is composed of one or more hydrophilic film-forming components. The predominant film-forming component is a negatively-charged latex polymer that has negatively-charged ionic groups other than carboxy groups. The latex polymer is present as latex particles that have been prepared in the presence of a nonionic stabilizer in an amount of at least 0.5% (by weight) that has an HLB value of 7 to 20. The nonionic stabilizer becomes associated with the latex polymer particles. Both thermographic and photothermographic materials can be prepared with such protective layers.