An electrophotographic photosensitive member including: a support; and a surface layer, wherein the surface layer contains a cured product of a composition containing a curable hole-transport compound, a specific fluorine-atom-containing compound, and a specific polymerizable compound.

Provided are an electrophotographic apparatus and a process cartridge each capable of suppressing the occurrence of a black spot (white background contamination) in an output image under a low-temperature and low-humidity environment. The electrophotographic apparatus includes: an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a support, a photosensitive layer, and a protective layer in the stated order; an exposing device; a developing device; and a cleaning device, wherein the protective layer has a triarylamine structure and a specific structure at a ratio in a specific range, and a toner contains toner particles each containing at least a resin, and an external additive. The toner has a volume-average particle diameter of 7 μm or more. The external additive contains a compound containing a titanium atom. The ratio of the mass of the compound containing a titanium atom to the total mass of the toner is 0.6 mass % or more.

There is provided a process cartridge detachably attachable to a main body of an electrophotographic apparatus, the process cartridge including: an electrophotographic photosensitive member and a charging member, in which when average local potential differences of calculated lengths in the electrophotographic photosensitive member is calculated based on a specific method, a maximum value of the average local potential difference is 2 V or more, the charging member includes a support and an electro-conductive layer, the electro-conductive layer has a matrix and domains dispersed in the matrix, a volume resistivity M of the matrix is at least 1.0010.sup.5 times a volume resistivity D of the domain, and a specific calculated length S.sub.CP [m] and a specific value relating a distance between the domains D.sub.ms [m] satisfy S.sub.CP3D.sub.ms.

An image carrier unit includes an image carrier that makes a rotation and has a photosensitive layer on an outer surface, the photosensitive layer containing a binding resin and at least one type of charge transporting material and covering the surface, and a cleaning blade that has a contact part contacting the surface of the image carrier and removes residue on the surface of the image carrier accompanying the rotation of the image carrier. A photosensitive ratio of a first product to a second product is 183.0 or higher and 233.9 or lower, the first product is obtained from a weight-average molecular weight (A) of the binder resin multiplied by an added ratio (B) of the binder resin in the photosensitive layer, and the second product is obtained from a weight-average molecular weight (C) of the charge transporting material multiplied by an added ratio (D) of the charge transporting material.

An electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer disposed on the conductive substrate. An outermost surface layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains a fluorine-containing resin particle and a fluorine-based graft polymer having a fluorinated alkyl group. A ratio of an amount of a fluorine-based graft polymer separated from the fluorine-containing resin particle to a total amount of the fluorine-based graft polymer in the outermost surface layer is 15% or less.

In an image forming apparatus, a cleaning member is pressed against a circumferential surface of an image bearing member and collects a toner remaining on the circumferential surface of the image bearing member. The toner has a number average roundness of 0.965 to 0.998. The toner has a D.sub.50 of 4.0 m to 7.0 m. A linear pressure of the cleaning member on the circumferential surface of the image bearing member is 10 N/m to 40 N/m. The image bearing member includes a single-layer photosensitive layer containing a charge generating material and a hole transport material. Ionization potential Ip.sub.HTM of the hole transport material and ionization potential Ip.sub.CGM of the charge generating material satisfy mathematical formula (1) Ip.sub.HTM5.30 eV, mathematical formula (2) Ip.sub.CGM5.30 eV, and mathematical formula (3) 0.09 eV|Ip.sub.HTMIp.sub.CGM|0.30 eV.

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.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member including: a support; and a surface layer, wherein the surface layer contains a cured product of a composition containing a curable hole-transport compound, a specific fluorine-atom-containing compound, and a specific polymerizable compound.

An image forming method includes forming an image with a toner using a photoconductor in which an intermediate layer and a photosensitive layer including a charge generating layer and a charge transport layer are formed overlying an electroconductive substrate, wherein the ionization potential of the surface of the photoconductor and the ionization potential of the surface of the toner satisfy the following relations 1 and 2,
|Ip (the surface of the photoconductor)Ip (the surface of the toner)|5.53 (eV) Relation 1
5.45 (eV)Ip (the surface of the photoconductor)5.53 (eV) Relation 2
where Ip (the surface of the photoconductor) represents the ionization potential of the surface of the photoconductor and Ip (the surface of the toner) represents the ionization potential of the surface of the toner.

The electrophotographic photosensitive member includes an undercoat layer and a surface layer on or above a support in this order, in which the undercoat layer contains metal oxide particles and a specific binder resin, the surface layer contains a charge transporting substance, fluororesin particles, and a specific binder resin, an arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the undercoat layer is 0.15 m or less, a refractive index (a) of the metal oxide particles and a refractive index (b) of the binder resin contained in the undercoat layer satisfy a specific relationship, and a refractive index (c) of the binder resin contained in the surface layer and a refractive index (d) of the fluororesin particles satisfy a specific relationship.