Lithographic printing plate precursors and use

1. A negative-working lithographic printing plate precursor that comprises:

a substrate,

a negative-working imageable layer disposed over the substrate, the negative-working imageable layer comprising a free radically polymerizable component, an initiator composition that is capable of generating free radicals upon exposure to imaging radiation, a radiation absorbing compound, and a polymeric binder, and

an outermost water-soluble overcoat layer that is disposed directly on the negative-working imageable layer, the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer having a dry thickness (t), in μm, that is defined by the following equation (I):

t=w/r

wherein w is the dry coverage of the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer in g/m 2 , and r is 1 g/cm 3 ,

the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer comprising:

(1) one or more film-forming water-soluble polymeric binders,

(2) organic wax particles having an average largest dimension D(wax) that is at least 0.08 μm and up to and including 0.8 μm, and meets the following Equation (III):

0.06 times t<D (wax)<0.75 times t (in μm);

and

(3) non-wax matte particles having an average largest dimension D(matte) that is defined by the following equation (II):

1.5 times t≦D (matte)≦40 times t (in μm).

2. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the dry thickness (t) of the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer is at least 0.05 μm and up to and including 4 μm.

3. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the organic wax particles are present in the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer in an amount of at least 0.05 weight % and up to and including 20 weight %, based on the total dry outermost water-soluble overcoat layer weight.

4. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the non-wax matte particles are present in the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer in an amount of at least 0.2 weight % and up to and including 20 weight %, based on the total dry outermost water-soluble overcoat layer weight.

5. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the non-wax matte particles are crosslinked organic particles.

6. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the organic wax particles are fluorinated or non-fluorinated hydrocarbon wax particles.

7. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the outermost water-soluble overcoat layer is present at a dry thickness of at least 0.1 μm and up to and including 2 μm.

8. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the one or more film-forming water-soluble polymeric binders comprise a modified or unmodified poly(vinyl alcohol) having a saponification degree of at least 30% and up to and including 99.9%.

9. The precursor of claim 8 , wherein the one or more film-forming water-soluble polymeric binders comprise at least one modified poly(vinyl alcohol) that is modified with at least 0.1 mol % of one or more of the same or different groups selected from the group consisting of carboxylic acid, sulfonic acid, acetoacetyl, alkylene, silanol, amino, thioalkyl, glycol, sulfuric acid ester, phosphonic acid, and phosphoric acid ester groups.

10. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the negative-working imageable layer is sensitive to radiation of at least 700 nm and up to and including 1400 nm.

11. The precursor of claim 1 , wherein the initiator composition that is capable of generating free radicals upon exposure to imaging radiation comprises a diaryliodonium cation and a boron-containing anion, wherein the diaryliodonium cation is represented by the following Structure (I):

wherein R and R′ independently represent halogen, nitro, alkyl, aryl, cycloalkyl, alkoxy, aryloxy, alkenyl, alkynyl, alkylamino, dialkylimino, alkylamido, arylamido, carbonyl, carboxy, sulfonyl, thioalkyl, or thioaryl groups, or two or more of the R and R′ groups can be combined to form a fused carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring with respective phenyl groups, and n and m are independently 0 or integers from 1 to 5, and

the boron-containing anion is represented by the following Structure (II):

B − (R 1 )(R 2 )(R 3 )(R 4 )  (II)

wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , and R 4 independently represent alkyl, aryl, alkenyl, alkynyl, cycloalkyl, or heterocyclic groups, or two or more of R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , and R 4 can be joined together to form a heterocyclic ring with the boron atom, such rings having up to 7 carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen atoms.

12. The precursor of claim 11 , wherein the boron-containing anion comprises R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , and R 4 that represent the same substituted or unsubstituted phenyl groups and the sum of m and n is 1 to 6.

13. A stack of a plurality of negative-working lithographic printing plate precursors, at least two adjacent precursors being precursor of claim 1 , wherein the at least the two adjacent precursors are stacked without interleaf paper between them.

14. A method for preparing a lithographic printing plate, comprising:

imagewise exposing the negative-working lithographic printing plate precursor of claim 1 to form an imaged precursor with exposed regions and non-exposed regions in the negative-working imageable layer, and

processing the imaged precursor, to remove the non-exposed regions in the negative-working imageable layer to prepare a lithographic printing plate.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the negative-working lithographic printing plate precursor is sensitive to infrared radiation and the imagewise exposing is carried out at a λ max of at least 700 nm and up to and including 1400 nm.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the imagewise exposing is carried out at a λ max of at least 250 nm and up to and including 450 nm.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

mounting the lithographic printing plate onto a printing press after the processing without any post-processing step.

18. The method of claim 14 , comprising:

processing the imaged precursor off-press using a processing solution having a pH of at least 3 and up to and including 13, and comprising at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a nonionic surfactant, an anionic surfactant, a hydrophilic film-forming polymer, and a neutrally-charged hydrophilic compound other than a nonionic or anionic surfactant.

19. The method of claim 14 , comprising:

processing the imaged precursor using a processing solution that both removes the non-exposed regions of the negative-working imageable layer and provides a protective coating over the processed precursor printing surface, and

further comprising mounting the lithographic printing plate onto a printing press after the processing without any post-processing step.

20. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

rinsing or gumming the lithographic printing plate,

drying the lithographic printing plate, and

optionally pre-heating the imaged precursor before the processing step.

21. The method of claim 14 , comprising:

processing the imaged precursor to remove the non-exposed regions in the negative-working imageable layer on-press using a fountain solution, lithographic printing ink, or both.