Electrophotoreceptor, image forming method, image forming apparatus and processing cartridge

• US 20030082470A1
• Filed: 05/24/2002
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Corporation (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Corporation (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Hayata, Hirofumi, Sakimura, Tomoo, Hamaguchi, Shinichi, Asano, Masao
• Granted Patent: US 6,878,496 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 430/60
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 5/142 Inert intermediate layers
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 5/144 comprising inorganic material

Abstract

An electrophotographic photoreceptor having an interlayer between an electroconductive support and a photoreceptive layer, wherein the interlayer contains an N-type semiconductive particle and a binder and a Benard cell is formed in the interlayer.

Claims

1. An electrophotographic photoreceptor having an interlayer between an electroconductive support and a photoreceptive layer, wherein the interlayer contains an N-type semiconductive particle and a binder and a Benard cell is formed in the interlayer.

2. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the N-type semiconductive particle is subjected to plural times of surface treatment and the final surface treatment is carried out by using a reactive organic silicon compound.

3. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 2, wherein the reactive organic silicon compound is methylhydrogenepolysiloxane.

4. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 2, wherein the organic silicon compound is a compound represented by the following Formula 1:

R−

Si−

(X)_a 

 

Formula 1

wherein the formula, R is an alkyl group or an aryl group, and X is a methoxy group, an ethoxy group or a halogen atom.

5. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 4, wherein the number of the carbon atoms in the group represented by R in Formula 1 is from 4 to 8.

6. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 2, wherein at least one of the plural times of the surface treatments is a treatment by a compound selected from the group consisting of alumina, silica and zirconia.

8. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the N-type semiconductive particle has a number average primary particle diameter of from 10 nm to 200 nm.

9. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the N-type semiconductive particle is a metal oxide particle.

10. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 9, wherein the N-type semiconductive particle is a titanium oxide particle.

11. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the binder of the interlayer is a polyamide resin.

12. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the interlayer has a dry thickness of from 0.2 to 15 μ

m.

13. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the roughness Rz of a surface of the conductive support is from 0.2 to 2.0 μ

m.

14. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the roughness Rmax of a surface of the conductive support is from 0.2 to 3.0 μ

m.

15. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the roughness Rmax of a surface of the conductive support is from 0.2 to 3.0 μ

m.

16. The electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1, wherein the conductive support is a flexible belt.

26. A processing cartridge comprises the electrophotographic photoreceptor of claim 1 and at least one of a charging means, a imagewise light exposing means, a developing means and a cleaning means combined into a unit so as to be freely put into and taken out from the image forming apparatus.

7. The electrophotographic photoreceptor described in any one of the foregoing 1 through 6, wherein the N-type semiconductive particle is subjected to a surface treatment by an organic silicon compound having a fluorine atom.

17. An image forming method which the steps of charging, light exposing, developing by a toner and transferring are repeated by rotation of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein the electrophotographic photoreceptor is the electrophotographic photoreceptor described in any one of the foregoing 1 through 12, and the toner to be used has a variation coefficient of the shape coefficient of not more than 16%, and a variation coefficient of the number particle diameter distribution of not more than 27%.

18. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the toner contains toner particles each having a shape coefficient of from 1.0 to 1.6 in a ratio of not less than 65% in number.

19. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the toner contains toner particles each having the shape coefficient of from 1.2 to 1.6 in a ratio of not less than 65% in number.

20. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the toner contains a toner particle having no corner in a ratio of not less than 50% in number.

21. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the toner has a number average diameter of from 3 to 8 μ

m.

22. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the sum M of a relative frequency of the toner particles included in the highest frequency class ml and a relative frequency of the toner particles included in the next high frequency class m₂ is not less than 70% in a histogram showing a particle diameter distribution in number which is classified into plural classes every 0.23 of natural logarithm ln D graduated on the horizontal axis of the histogram, where D is the diameter of the toner particle in μ

m.

23. The image forming method claim 17, wherein the toner comprises a colored particle produced by polymerizing a polymerizable monomer in an aqueous medium.

24. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the toner comprises a colored particle produced by associating polymer particles in an aqueous medium.

25. The image forming method of claim 17, wherein the toner comprises a styrene acrylate resin or a styrene methacrylate resin.