An electrophotographic photosensitive member capable of maintaining a charging ability during repeated use is provided. An electrophotographic photosensitive member having a support, a conductive layer, a photosensitive layer and a protective layer in this order, wherein the protective layer contains a binding resin and a metal oxide particle, the metal oxide particle has a core and a coating layer, the core and the coating layer each contain titanium oxide, and the coating layer further includes niobium.

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member and a charging roller that charges a circumferential surface of the image bearing member to a positive polarity. The image bearing member includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer of a single layer, and satisfies formula (1) shown below. The photosensitive layer contains a charge generating material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a binder resin. $\begin{array}{cc}0.60\leqq \frac{V}{\left(Q/S\right)\times \left(d/{\mathrm{.Math.}}_r.Math.{\mathrm{.Math.}}_0\right)}& \left(1\right)\end{array}$
In formula (1), Q represents a charge amount [C] of the circumferential surface of the image bearing member, S represents a charge area [m.sup.2] of the charged circumferential surface of the image bearing member, d represents a film thickness [m] of the photosensitive layer, co represents vacuum permittivity [F/m], and V represents a value calculated in accordance with formula V=V.sub.0−V.sub.r.

An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a cylindrical substrate; and a surface layer located on an outer surface of the cylindrical substrate. At least a substrate central portion in a cylindrical axial direction of the outer surface of the cylindrical substrate is formed as a rough surface, and a surface roughness of a surface-layer central portion in the cylindrical axial direction of an outer surface of the surface layer is larger than that of at least one of two surface-layer end portions in the cylindrical axial direction of the outer surface of the surface layer. An image forming apparatus includes the electrophotographic photoreceptor; and a peripheral member capable of contacting a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor.

There is provided an electrophotographic photoreceptor including: a conductive support; and a photosensitive layer and a protective layer containing a cured product obtained by curing a curable compound, which are sequentially disposed on the conductive support. The photoreceptor has a Martens hardness of 255 N/mm.sup.2 or more. The photosensitive layer contains at least a hole transport material (HTM), and an energy difference between a HOMO level and a LUMO level of the hole transport material (HTM) is greater than 3.6 eV and 4.0 eV or less.

The present invention provides an electrophotographic image forming method using an electrophotographic photoconductor. The electrophotographic photoconductor has a protective layer. The surface of the protective layer has a projection structure. The average distance between neighboring projections among a plurality of projections R is set within the range of 100 to 250 nm. A toner including titanate compound particles attached to toner base particles is used.

The present disclosure provides an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a surface layer in which an occurrence of the image deletion is suppressed; a process cartridge equipped with the electrophotographic photosensitive member; and an electrophotographic apparatus provided with the process cartridge. An electrophotographic photosensitive member has a surface layer that includes a copolymerized product of a composition including a metal oxide particle having a polymerizable functional group on a surface thereof and a polymerizable compound having a particular structure.

To provide a laminate including: a layer (1) including an organic material; a layer (2) including a siloxane compound and metal oxide, where the layer (2) is in contact with the layer (1); and a layer (3) including the metal oxide, where the layer (3) is in contact with the layer (2).

Provided is an electrophotographic photoreceptor having at least a charge transport layer and a protective layer sequentially laminated on a conductive support, wherein the protective layer contains a cured product of a composition containing a charge transport compound having a chain polymerizable functional group; the charge transport layer and the protective layer are continuously laminated with intervening a mixed layer therebetween in which components of both layers of the charge transport layer and the protective layer are compatible; and the mixed layer has a thickness in the range of 0.1 to 1.0 μm.

An improved overcoat layer for an organic photoconductor drum of an electrophotographic image forming device is provided. The overcoat layer is prepared from a curable composition including a crosslinkable siloxane, an acrylic polymer with pigment affinic groups, nano metal oxide particles sized less than 400 nm in combination with a urethane acrylate resin having at least 6 functional groups. The outermost layer of an organic photoconductors is coated with the overcoat formulation of the present invention then cured. The resulting cured overcoated organic photoconductor has improved wear resistance and importantly does not negatively altering the electrophotographic properties of the organic photoconductor.

An improved overcoat layer for an organic photoconductor drum of an electrophotographic image forming device is provided. The overcoat layer is prepared from a curable composition including a crosslinkable siloxane, an acrylic polymer with pigment affinic groups, nano metal oxide particles sized less than 400 nm in combination with a urethane acrylate resin having at least 6 functional groups. The outermost layer of an organic photoconductors is coated with the overcoat formulation of the present invention then cured. The resulting cured overcoated organic photoconductor has improved wear resistance and importantly does not negatively altering the electrophotographic properties of the organic photoconductor.