An electrophotographic photoconductor includes, in sequence, a support, an undercoat layer, a charge generation layer containing a charge generation material and a first binder resin, and a charge transport layer containing a charge transport material and a second binder resin. The charge generation material in the charge generation layer is chlorogallium phthalocyanine having diffraction peaks at Bragg angles (20.2) of 7.4, 16.6, 25.5, and 28.3 in an X-ray diffraction pattern obtained by using Cu K- radiation. The undercoat layer contains strontium titanate particles and a third binder resin.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a photosensitive layer of a single layer. The photosensitive layer contains a charge generating material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, and a binder resin. An optical response time is 0.05 milliseconds or longer and 0.85 milliseconds or shorter. The optical response time is a time from irradiation of a surface of the photosensitive layer charged to +800 V with pulse light having a wavelength of 780 nm to decay of a surface potential of the photosensitive layer from +800 V to +400 V. The pulse light has an intensity that allows the surface potential of the photosensitive layer to decay to +200 V from +800 V after 400 milliseconds elapse from the irradiation of the surface of the photosensitive layer charged to +800 V with the pulse light. The photosensitive layer has a Martens hardness at 50 C. of at least 160 N/mm.sup.2.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a surface layer, in which the surface layer contains a copolymer of a composition which contains at least a compound represented by the following general formula (1) and a compound represented by the following general formula (2), a content of the compound represented by the general formula (1) in the composition is 25 mass % or more and 70 mass % or less with respect to a total content of the compound represented by the general formula (1) and the compound represented by the general formula (2), and the total content of the compound represented by the general formula (1) and the compound represented by the general formula (2) is 55 mass % or more with respect to a total mass of the composition.

An electrophotographic photoconductor is provided. The electrophotographic photoconductor includes a conductive substrate, a photosensitive layer, and a surface layer containing fluororesin particles, non-fluororesin particles, and a cured resin. The fluororesin particles have an average particle diameter of from 0.01 to 0.3 m in a cross-sectional image of the surface layer as observed by a scanning electron microscope with a magnification of 5,000 times, and when the cross-sectional image is segmented into uniform regions each being 1 m4 m, a standard deviation of areas each of which is occupied by the fluororesin particles and the non-fluororesin particles in each of the regions is 0.2 m.sup.2 or less.

An electrophotographic photoconductor is provided. The electrophotographic photoconductor includes a conductive substrate, a photosensitive layer, and a surface layer containing fluororesin particles, non-fluororesin particles, and a cured resin. The fluororesin particles have an average particle diameter of from 0.01 to 0.3 m in a cross-sectional image of the surface layer as observed by a scanning electron microscope with a magnification of 5,000 times, and when the cross-sectional image is segmented into uniform regions each being 1 m4 m, a standard deviation of areas each of which is occupied by the fluororesin particles and the non-fluororesin particles in each of the regions is 0.2 m.sup.2 or less.

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.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a surface layer, in which the surface layer contains a copolymer of a composition which contains at least a compound represented by the following general formula (1) and a compound represented by the following general formula (2), a content of the compound represented by the general formula (1) in the composition is 25 mass % or more and 70 mass % or less with respect to a total content of the compound represented by the general formula (1) and the compound represented by the general formula (2), and the total content of the compound represented by the general formula (1) and the compound represented by the general formula (2) is 55 mass % or more with respect to a total mass of the composition.

The image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member configured to bear a toner image, the photosensitive member having a surface layer containing acrylic resin, and an intermediate transfer member configured to secondarily transfer the toner image having been primarily transferred from the photosensitive member onto a transfer material, the intermediate transfer member having a surface layer containing acrylic resin and having a ten-point average roughness Rz set within a range of 0.35 mRz1.5 m.

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member, including: a support; a charge-generating layer on the support; a charge-transporting layer on the charge-generating layer; and a protective layer on the charge-transporting layer, wherein the protective layer contains the following components (), (), and (): () a polymer of a hole-transportable compound; () a polycarbonate resin; and () a hole-transportable compound, wherein a content of the component () in the protective layer is 0.01 mass % or more and 4.0 mass % or less with respect to a content of the component () in the protective layer, wherein a content of the component () in the protective layer is 0.001 mass % or more and 3.0 mass % or less with respect to the content of the component () in the protective layer, and wherein the charge-transporting layer contains the component ().

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.