An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate; an undercoat layer formed on the conductive substrate and containing a polyurethane resin, metal oxide particles, a silane coupling agent, and a compound represented by General Formula (ID); and a photosensitive layer formed on the undercoat layer ##STR00001##
(where R.sup.1 to R.sup.8 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a nitro group, a cyano group, a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a saturated or unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon group optionally having a substituent, an aromatic hydrocarbon group optionally having a substituent, an alkoxy group optionally having a substituent, an aryloxy group optionally having a substituent, a sulfo group optionally having a substituent, an amino group, an alkylamino group optionally having a substituent, or an arylamino group optionally having a substituent).

The present disclosure relates to an electrophotographic photoreceptor which can suppress occurrence of abnormalities such as peeling or falling off of a film from a substrate end portion in a film formation step of a surface layer and maintain and reproduce a stable printing quality even in a use stage after productization, and an image forming apparatus including the same. An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a cylindrical substrate including a chamfered face located between an substrate outer circumferential surface and a substrate end face, and a surface layer located on the outer circumferential surface. The substrate outer circumferential surface includes a first uneven portion. The chamfered face includes a second uneven portion and a third uneven portion located on a surface of the second uneven portion. A surface roughness Sa of the second uneven portion is larger than a surface roughness Sa of the third uneven portion.

Provided is a positively charged electrophotographic photoconductor, a manufacturing method thereof, and an electrophotographic apparatus using the same. The positively charged electrophotographic photoconductor includes an electroconductive support and a single layer-type photosensitive layer provided thereon including a charge generation material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a mixed binder resin. Alternately, the positively charged electrophotographic photoconductor includes an electroconductive support; a charge transport layer provided on the electroconductive support and containing at least a hole transport material, and a binder resin; and a charge generation layer provided on the charge transport layer and including at least a charge generation material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a mixed binder resin. In either embodiment, the mixed binder resin contains at least two resins including a polycarbonate-based resin selected to provide the mixed binder resin with a water vapor permeability ranging from 5 to 13 g/m.sup.2.Math.day.

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member, including: a support; a charge-generating layer on the support; a charge-transporting layer on the charge-generating layer; and a protective layer on the charge-transporting layer, wherein the protective layer contains the following components (), (), and (): () a polymer of a hole-transportable compound; () a polycarbonate resin; and () a hole-transportable compound, wherein a content of the component () in the protective layer is 0.01 mass % or more and 4.0 mass % or less with respect to a content of the component () in the protective layer, wherein a content of the component () in the protective layer is 0.001 mass % or more and 3.0 mass % or less with respect to the content of the component () in the protective layer, and wherein the charge-transporting layer contains the component ().

An improved overcoat layer for an organic photoconductor drum of an electrophotographic image forming device and method to make the same is provided. The overcoat layer is prepared from a curable composition having no charge transport materials but including nano metal oxide particles sized less than 400 nm in combination with an urethane acrylate resin having at least 6 functional groups. This overcoat layer improves wear resistance of the photoconductor drum without negatively altering the electrophotographic properties

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support member, a charge generating layer containing a phthalocyanine pigment as a charge generating material, a charge transport layer containing a charge transporting material in this order. The charge generating layer has a thickness of less than 200 nm, and the phthalocyanine pigment includes phthalocyanine crystalline particles having a particle size distribution and satisfies a requirement that the volume average of the products of i and i is 0.31 or more.

There is provided an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a cylindrical shape, including a plurality of concave portions on a surface thereof, wherein a sum of opening areas of the concave portions is 5% or more and 65% or less based on a total area of a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member, an average value davg of depths of the concave portions satisfies the following Equation (1),
0.4davg3.0(m)Equation (1) a sum of opening areas of concave portions having a specific depth d is 95% or more of the sum of the opening areas of the concave portions, an average value Lavg of maximum widths of openings of the concave portions in a circumferential direction of the electrophotographic photosensitive member is 20 m or more and 200 m or less, and the electrophotographic photosensitive member has at least one specific region B.

An electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising at least a photosensitive layer on a conductive substrate, wherein the photosensitive layer is a laminate having a charge transport layer and a charge generation layer, the charge transport layer contains four or more types of compounds each having a maximum absorption wavelength falling within a wavelength range of from 300 nm to 600 nm in a tetrahydrofuran solution at 25? C., and maximum absorption wavelengths falling within the wavelength range of at least four types of the compounds of said four or more types of the compounds are separated from each other by 10 nm or more.

An average value of a hydrogen content ratio of a surface layer made of hydrogenated amorphous carbon is set to be 0.40 or less and a maximum value of an sp.sup.2 bonding ratio in an outermost surface region of the surface layer made of the hydrogenated amorphous carbon is set to be 0.50 or less.

In an example implementation, a method of cleaning a silicon photoconductor includes contacting the silicon photoconductor with a base-peroxide solution, rinsing the silicon photoconductor with a liquid, and heating the silicon photoconductor to evaporate the liquid.