Provided are a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus each of which is reduced in fogging for reducing a toner consumption. Specifically, provided is a process cartridge, which is removably mounted onto a main body of an electrophotographic apparatus, the process cartridge including: a developing unit containing a toner; and an electrophotographic photosensitive member, wherein the toner is a toner including a toner particle, and has a polyvalent acid metal salt on at least part of a surface of the toner particle, wherein the polyvalent acid metal salt includes at least one kind of metal element selected from metal elements belonging to from Group 3 to Group 13, and wherein a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a resin including a siloxane segment.

A photoelectric conversion element includes a support, a photoelectric conversion layer, an undercoat layer, and a surface layer; where the photoelectric conversion layer, the undercoat layer, and the surface layer are disposed on or above the support in this order. The surface layer is a ceramic film, and the undercoat layer includes a siloxane resin.

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.

Provided is an electrophotographic photoreceptor, which is excellent in abrasion resistance and scratch resistance, has excellent electrical characteristics, and is capable of inhibiting an image defect, a manufacturing method of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, a process cartridge, and an electrophotographic apparatus. A surface layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains a copolymer of a composition which contains resin particles containing fluorine atoms, a charge transport compound having 2 or more polymerizable functional groups, a compound represented by General Formula (1), and a resin having a structure represented by General Formula (2) and a structure represented by General Formula (3). The polymerizable functional groups t are independently selected from an acryloyloxy group and a methacryloyloxy group, and a content of the compound represented by General Formula (1) in the composition is 0.10% by mass or more. ##STR00001##

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.

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).

A photosensitive body for an image forming apparatus may include a photosensitive layer and a protective layer formed on the photosensitive layer. The protective layer may include a urethane oligomer-based compound including urethane oligomer acrylates, and a polysiloxane including a silicon atom (Si) covalently bonded to a first side chain including an oxygen atom (O) covalently bonded to the urethane oligomer-based compound. The polysiloxane may have a chemical structure represented by the following Formulae 1:

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where R1 through R7 each independently represents a hydrogen atom, or alkyl which has 1 to 25 carbons, or the alkoxy group which has 1-10 carbons, where n represents an integer greater than or equal to 1, and where each respective H independently represents a hydrogen atom or the oxygen atom (O) covalently bonded to the urethane oligomer-based compound.

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.

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.