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 image forming method includes a charging step, an image exposure step, a developing step, a transferring step, a cleaning step, and a fixing step. A toner contains toner particles, the toner particles contain a resin A including a unit A1 including an alkyl group having 18 to 36 carbon atoms in the side chain, and the electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a surface layer containing (i) fluorine-containing resin particles and (ii) a fluorine-based polymer B.

As a new negatively charging electrophotographic photoconductor having a cured resin based protective layer that does not necessitate a heat treatment for enhancing the electric characteristics, a negatively charging electrophotographic photoconductor having a structure including a photosensitive layer and a protective layer containing a cured product formed by curing a curable compound on a conductive support in this order, the photosensitive layer containing at least a hole transporting material (HTM) and a radical acceptor compound or an electron transporting material (ETM), the hole transporting material (HTM) being a compound having an energy difference between a HOMO level and a LUMO level of 3.60 eV or less, and having a HOMO level of −4.50 eV or less based on the vacuum level is proposed.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member, which is suppressed in occurrence of fogging and is excellent in abrasion resistance. In the electrophotographic photosensitive member, an outermost surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member comprises a polymerized product of a composition comprising at least a polyrotaxane and a monomer having a polymerizable reactive group, and a chain molecule of the polyrotaxane has two blocking groups at both terminals thereof, and a (meth)acryloyloxy group of a cyclic molecule of the polyrotaxane forms a bond.

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a satisfactory chargeability and being excellent in fogging suppression. The electrophotographic photosensitive member is an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a surface protective layer, wherein the surface protective layer is a polymerized film of a composition containing a compound having one of an acryloyloxy group or a methacryloyloxy group, a conductive particle, and an organic salt formed of at least one organic cation selected from the group consisting of: imidazolium; pyridinium; pyrrolidinium; piperidinium; a tetraalkylammonium; and a tetraalkylphosphonium, and at least one anion selected from the group consisting of organic or inorganic anions, and wherein the content of the organic salt is 0.1 mass % to 10.0 mass % with respect to the total mass of the conductive particle.

There is provided an electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising: a support, a photosensitive layer, and a surface layer in this order, wherein an outer surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member exhibits a wrinkled shape by having a concavo-convex shape, the surface layer comprises a binder resin and an inorganic particle, and at least a part of the inorganic particle exposes at a concave portion of the concavo-convex shape.

In a positively charging single layer type electrophotographic photoreceptor having an over coat layer, an electrophotographic photoreceptor that is excellent in mechanical strength, electric characteristics, and adhesiveness, an electrophotographic photoreceptor cartridge, and an image formation device are provided. In a positively charging electrophotographic photoreceptor having a single layer type photosensitive layer and an over coat layer, the Martens hardness on the photoreceptor surface satisfies the prescribed condition, and preferably the photosensitive layer satisfies the particular relational expression of the contents and the molecular weights of the hole transporting substance and the electron transporting substance contained therein, thereby solving the problem.

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.

Provided is an electrophotographic member including: a substrate having electroconductivity; and a monolayer surface layer formed on the substrate. The surface layer has a matrix containing a crosslinked resin as a binder, and holds at least one particle containing an inorganic layered compound having an ion exchange capacity so that at least a part of the at least one particle is exposed from an outer surface of the surface layer. An elastic modulus of the matrix, measured in a region of a section in a thickness direction of the surface layer from the outer surface of the surface layer to a depth of 0.1 μm, is 200 MPa or more.

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, 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.