Provided is a positively charged electrophotographic photoconductor that provides a stable high-quality image in any environment, 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 on the electroconductive support and including a charge generation material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material and a 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 binder resin. In either embodiment, the binder resin contains a polycarbonate-based resin and has a water vapor permeability ranging from 5 to 13 g/m.sup.2.Math.day.

A process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that includes a photosensitive layer and a protective layer on a conductive substrate in this order, and a charging member that includes an elastic layer and a surface layer on a conductive base material in this order and comes into contact with the electrophotographic photoreceptor to charge a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, in which the protective layer in the electrophotographic photoreceptor is a cured film formed to contain a crosslinked material of a composition containing at least one compound X selected from the group consisting of a compound having a guanamine structure and a compound having a melamine structure and a charge transport material Y containing at least one group selected from the group consisting of OH, OCH.sub.3, NH.sub.2, SH, and COOH, a water contact angle ?1 of the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is 65? or greater and less than 80?, and a water contact angle ?2 of a surface of the charging member satisfies a relationship of ?1<?2.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member, in which occurrences of image defects are suppressed, and a method for manufacturing the electrophotographic photosensitive member are provided. In addition, a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus, which include the electrophotographic photosensitive member, are provided. The surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a cured material, and the cured material is a copolymer of a hole transport compound having a chain-polymerizable functional group and a vinyl ester compound containing a long-chain alkyl group.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a conductive base; an organic photosensitive layer disposed on the conductive base, the organic photosensitive layer including a layer that constitutes a surface and contains a charge transport material, a binder resin having a viscosity-average molecular weight less than about 50,000, and silica particles in an amount of about 40% by weight or more; and an inorganic protective layer disposed on the organic photosensitive layer.

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)|0.18 (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.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer. The photosensitive layer is a single-layer photosensitive layer. The photosensitive layer contains a charge generating material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a binder resin. The binder resin contains a polyarylate resin (1). The polyarylate resin is represented by general formula (1). The photosensitive layer has a scratch resistance depth of no greater than 0.50 m. The photosensitive layer has a Vickers hardness of at least 17.0 HV.

##STR00001##

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer. The photosensitive layer is a single layer. The photosensitive layer contains a charge generating material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a binder resin. The photosensitive layer has a scratch resistance depth of no greater than 0.50 m.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member has a support, a charge generation layer, and a charge transport layer in this order, the charge transport layer containing a charge transport material. The charge transport layer is a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member and contains a polycarbonate resin having a structural unit selected from group A and a structural unit selected from group B. ##STR00001## ##STR00002##

An electrophotographic photoreceptor is provided that can achieve reductions in the amount of wear in the photoreceptor surface while producing an excellent image on a long-term basis. Also provided are a method of producing the electrophotographic photoreceptor and an electrophotographic apparatus. The electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a conductive substrate; and a photosensitive layer provided on the conductive substrate and being composed of a resin having a molecular structure optimized using molecular dynamic calculations that is a helical structure, and having a value for a ratio r/I between the diameter (r) and helix pitch (I) of the helical structure that ranges from 0.04 to 1.0.

A charge-transporting layer as the surface layer of an electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a charge-transporting substance, and contains, as resins, a resin A having specific structural units and a polycarbonate resin D having specific structural units. The charge-transporting layer has, in a matrix containing the charge-transporting substance and the polycarbonate resin D, domains each containing the resin A.