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.

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.

A method for producing an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a photosensitive layer and a protective layer above a support in this order includes: forming a coating film for a protective layer by coating a coating liquid for the protective layer for forming the protective layer on the photosensitive layer and curing the coating film for the protective layer, in which the coating liquid for the protective layer contains a solvent, a compound represented by a general formula (1), a compound represented by a general formula (2), and a compound represented by a general formula (3) at a specific ratio. In addition, in an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a photosensitive layer and a protective layer above a support in this order, the protective layer is obtained by curing a coating liquid for the protective layer.

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a satisfactory suppressing effect on image smearing. The electrophotographic photosensitive member includes: a support; a photosensitive layer; and a surface layer, the surface layer containing at least one of melamine resin-containing particles and acrylic resin-containing particles, and a polymerized product of a composition containing a charge-transporting compound having a polymerizable functional group; and a compound represented by formula (1):

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Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a support and a surface layer, wherein the surface layer contains a copolymer of a composition containing a specific hole transporting compound and a specific compound.

An image forming apparatus including developing unit to develop electrostatic latent image with toner to form visible image, and cleaning unit including elastic member including surface layer and configured to remove the toner, wherein Martens hardness A and Martens hardness B of the surface layer measured by applying load of 1 N and load of 1,000 N, respectively, to position of the surface layer in thickness direction thereof using nanoindenter are both 2.5 N/mm.sup.2 or greater but 32.5 N/mm.sup.2 or less, and Martens hardness A and Martens hardness B satisfy inequality,
Martens hardness A>Martens hardness B
wherein coefficient of dynamic friction of the surface layer against polycarbonate is 0.5 or less, and the toner includes polyester resin insoluble to THF and Tg of THF-insoluble component of the toner determined from DSC curve of first heating of DSC is 60 C. or higher but 20 C. or lower.

An image forming apparatus is provided that includes: an image bearer; a charger; an irradiator; a developing device containing a toner; and a transfer device. The image bearer has a Martens hardness of from 185 to 250 N/m.sup.2. The toner satisfies a relation 0.13X/Dn0.16, where X [m] represents an average value of an amount of deformation of the toner by micro-indentation at when a load reaches 3.0010.sup.4 N at a loading rate of 3.010.sup.5 N/sec under an environment of 32 degrees C. and 40% RH, and Dn [m] represents a number average particle diameter of the toner. The toner contains an external additive comprising silica particles and particles composed mainly of strontium titanate. The particles composed mainly of strontium titanate further contain a third element M selected from the group consisting of La, Mg, Ca, Sn, and Si.

An image forming apparatus including developing unit to develop electrostatic latent image with toner to form visible image, and cleaning unit including elastic member including surface layer and configured to remove the toner, wherein Martens hardness A and Martens hardness B of the surface layer measured by applying load of 1 N and load of 1,000 N, respectively, to position of the surface layer in thickness direction thereof using nanoindenter are both 2.5 N/mm.sup.2 or greater but 32.5 N/mm.sup.2 or less, and Martens hardness A and Martens hardness B satisfy inequality,

Martens hardness A>Martens hardness B

wherein coefficient of dynamic friction of the surface layer against polycarbonate is 0.5 or less, and the toner includes polyester resin insoluble to THF and Tg of THF-insoluble component of the toner determined from DSC curve of first heating of DSC is 60 C. or higher but 20 C. or lower.

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member that suppresses image smearing at the time of its repeated use, and expresses satisfactory wear resistance and electric characteristics. The electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a photosensitive layer in the stated order, wherein a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a copolymer of a hole-transportable compound having a chain-polymerizable functional group and a specific compound having maleimide groups.

Provided are an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a support and a photosensitive layer above the support, in which a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a polymerization product of a composition containing a specific hole transporting compound, and an electrophotographic apparatus and a process cartridge including the electrophotographic photosensitive member. Also provided is a method of producing the electrophotographic photosensitive member, including (i) forming a coating film of a coating solution for a surface layer which is a composition containing a specific hole transporting compound, and (ii) forming the surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member by a polymerization reaction of the composition containing the specific hole transporting compound.