The present disclosure provides a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus in which fogging is reduced so as to reduce an amount of toner consumed. A process cartridge configured to be detachably attachable to a main body of an electrophotographic apparatus includes a developing unit containing a toner, and an electrophotographic photosensitive member, wherein the toner is a toner that has a toner particle, and has a metal salt of a polyvalent acid at least on a part of a surface of the toner particle; wherein the metal salt of the polyvalent acid includes at least one kind of metal element selected from metal elements belonging to from Group 3 to Group 13, and a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains an acrylic resin or a methacrylic resin.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for implementing a photoconductive device performing bulk conduction. In one exemplary aspect, a photoconductive device is disclosed. The device includes a light source configured to emit light; a crystalline material positioned to receive the light from the light source, wherein the crystalline material is doped with a dopant that forms a mid-gap state within a bandgap of the crystalline material to control a recombination time of the crystalline material; a first electrode coupled to the crystalline material to provide a first electrical contact for the crystalline material, and a second electrode coupled to the crystalline material to provide a second electrical contact for the crystalline material, wherein the first and the second electrodes are configured to establish an electric field across the crystalline material, and the crystalline material is configured to exhibit a substantially linear transconductance in response to receiving the light.

Techniques, systems, and devices are disclosed for implementing a photoconductive device performing bulk conduction. In one exemplary aspect, a photoconductive device is disclosed. The device includes a light source configured to emit light; a crystalline material positioned to receive the light from the light source, wherein the crystalline material is doped with a dopant that forms a mid-gap state within a bandgap of the crystalline material to control a recombination time of the crystalline material; a first electrode coupled to the crystalline material to provide a first electrical contact for the crystalline material, and a second electrode coupled to the crystalline material to provide a second electrical contact for the crystalline material, wherein the first and the second electrodes are configured to establish an electric field across the crystalline material, and the crystalline material is configured to exhibit a substantially linear transconductance in response to receiving the light.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a photosensitive layer of a single layer. The photosensitive layer contains a charge generating material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a binder resin. An optical response time is 0.05 milliseconds or longer and 0.85 milliseconds or shorter. The optical response time is a time from irradiation of a surface of the photosensitive layer charged to +800 V with pulse light having a wavelength of 780 nm to decay of a surface potential of the photosensitive layer from +800 V to +400 V. The pulse light has an intensity that allows the surface potential of the photosensitive layer to decay to +200 V from +800 V after 400 milliseconds elapse from the irradiation of the surface of the photosensitive layer charged to +800 V with the pulse light. The photosensitive layer has a Martens hardness at 50 C. of at least 160 N/mm.sup.2.

An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing member; a developing member to supply a developer to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member to clean a peripheral surface of the image bearing member in contact with the peripheral surface, wherein a plurality of grooves extend in a circumferential direction on the peripheral surface, and have a width in a generatrix direction of the peripheral surface within a range of at least 0.5 m and not more than 40 m, and are formed to be side by side in the generatrix direction; the number of the grooves is at least 20 and not more than 1000 per a width of 1000 m in the generatrix direction of the peripheral surface; and an average depth (Rvk) of a valley of a projection under a core section of a roughness curve of the peripheral surface is 0.08 m or less.

An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing member; a developing member to supply a developer to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member to clean a peripheral surface of the image bearing member in contact with the peripheral surface, wherein a plurality of grooves extend in a circumferential direction on the peripheral surface, and have a width in a generatrix direction of the peripheral surface within a range of at least 0.5 m and not more than 40 m, and are formed to be side by side in the generatrix direction; the number of the grooves is at least 20 and not more than 1000 per a width of 1000 m in the generatrix direction of the peripheral surface; and an average depth (Rvk) of a valley of a projection under a core section of a roughness curve of the peripheral surface is 0.08 m or less.

Provided is a photoconductor for electrophotography having high sensitivity, low residual potential, and good wear resistance and contamination resistance, and that is less likely to cause light-induced fatigue and filming, and also exhibits good potential stability before and after repeated printing, even without a surface protective layer formed on a photosensitive layer. Provided also are a process of producing the photoconductor and an electrophotographic apparatus. The photoconductor for electrophotography may be a single-layer-type photoconductor or a multi-layer-type photoconductor and includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer formed on the conductive substrate and including a hole transport material having a structure represented by general formula (1) below; a binder resin having a repeating structure represented by general formula (2) below; and at least one electron transport material having a structure represented by general formulae (ET1) to (ET3) below: ##STR00001##

Provided is a photoconductor for electrophotography having high sensitivity, low residual potential, and good wear resistance and contamination resistance, and that is less likely to cause light-induced fatigue and filming, and also exhibits good potential stability before and after repeated printing, even without a surface protective layer formed on a photosensitive layer. Provided also are a process of producing the photoconductor and an electrophotographic apparatus. The photoconductor for electrophotography may be a single-layer-type photoconductor or a multi-layer-type photoconductor and includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer formed on the conductive substrate and including a hole transport material having a structure represented by general formula (1) below; a binder resin having a repeating structure represented by general formula (2) below; and at least one electron transport material having a structure represented by general formulae (ET1) to (ET3) below: ##STR00001##

A process cartridge using an image forming apparatus, including a rotatable image bearing member having a circumferential surface; a developing unit configured to supply a developing agent to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member that cleans the circumferential surface, wherein the developing agent contains a toner including toner particles and a metal soap, the image bearing member includes a plurality of grooves formed on the circumferential surface to extend in a circumferential direction of the circumferential surface and to be arranged side by side in a rotation axis direction, and the plurality of grooves and portions between the grooves form concave-convex portions on the circumferential surface. The circumferential surface of the image bearing member had surface roughness Rz of 0<Rz0.70 m and average interval Sm between concave-convex portions on the circumferential surface of 0<Sm70.0 m.

An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing member; a developing member to supply a developer to the image bearing member; and a cleaning member to clean a peripheral surface of the image bearing member in contact with the peripheral surface, wherein a plurality of grooves extend in a circumferential direction on the peripheral surface, and have a width in a generatrix direction of the peripheral surface within a range of at least 0.5 m and not more than 40 m, and are formed to be side by side in the generatrix direction; the number of the grooves is at least 20 and not more than 1000 per a width of 1000 m in the generatrix direction of the peripheral surface; and an average depth (Rvk) of a valley of a projection under a core section of a roughness curve of the peripheral surface is 0.08 m or less.