Diazo imaging systems

The most recent comprehensive monograph on diazo image systems is the book by Dinaburg (1964). Reviews have been written by Delzenne (1979), Marx et al. (1983), Epperlein et al. (1983), and Bottcher and Epperlein (1988, p. 58). 

E. Brinckman, G. Delzenne, A. Pootand j. Willems, Unconventional /waging Systems, Focal Press (1978). This short book provides a good account of diazo imaging systems, set in the context of other non-silver processes. 

Inherently, the stability issues limited the applications for diazo chemistry and when better systems were developed, the diazo materials lost out. Still, they were relatively inexpensive, and saw enormous applicability up to the point where electrophotography offered a higher quality imaging system, which did not depend on a precoated paper and exposure to ammonia vapor. 

We start the discussion of the group (2) of photo-de-diazoniations in imaging processes by noting that, after silver halide photography, systems based on the photolysis of diazo compounds form the second most important group of imaging processes. 

The diazo systems have the advantage of being cheap and easy to develop into the final image. The resolving power is about ten times better that that of silver images. However, the light sensitivity of diazo systems is lower than that of silver photography by a factor of 106 to 108. 

---