Liquid toner containing foaming inhibitor, foamed product, foamable intermediate product and method of producing or manufacturing same

摘要

A liquid toner of the present invention comprises particles containing a foaming inhibitor and an electrically insulating dispersion medium dispersing the particles therein. One preferred liquid toner comprises copolymer resin particles and an electrically insulating dispersion medium, the copolymer resin particles containing a copolymer resin composed of at least two different monomer components including a first and a second monomer components and a foaming inhibitor, and the copolymer resin particles being dispersed in the dispersion medium, wherein the copolymer resin and the dispersion medium are related to each other such that (i) a difference DELTA ( delta p1- delta d) between a SP value delta p1 of a homopolymer composed only of the first monomer component and a SP value delta d of the dispersion medium is not smaller than 1.0, (ii) a difference DELTA ( delta p2- delta d) between a SP value delta p2 of a homopolymer composed only of the second monomer component and the SP value delta d is not larger than 1.0, and (iii) a difference DELTA ( delta p1- delta p2) is at least 0.5, and each of said copolymer resin particles has a configuration in which a core portion insoluble in the dispersion medium is surrounded with an outer skin portion soluble or swellable in the dispersion medium. A foamed product having a convexo-concave pattern is formed by applying the foaming inhibitor on a foamable preform in a prescribed pattern via an on-demand printing method such as an electrostatic record or an electrostatic image transfer with the use of the above described liquid toner, and then foaming same.