THERMOCHROMIC INFRARED DYES

摘要

The invention is in the field of intrinsically thermochromic material. We have found that infrared absorbing dyes of the azamethine type have intrinsically thermochromic properties. The use of said dyes as thermochromic material has the advantage that they can be thermally activated by infrared irradiation. Irradiation of such material with a laser causes a colour change that can be used in imaging and optical data storage. The thermochromic dyes can be mixed with polymeric material and from the resulting polymer composition films can be made. If the dye contains polymerizable groups, it may be covalently incorporated into the polymer.