Image carrier, process cartridge and image-forming apparatus

A process cartridge comprising:

• an image carrier having a conductive base material and a photosensitive layer formed on the base material, the photosensitive layer having an outermost surface layer that contains particles having a number-averaged particle sphericality represented by Formula (1) of approximately 0.7 or less:
• sphericality=4πA/L2 (1), where π represents the circular constant, A represents a projection area of the particle, and L represents a peripheral length of a projected particle image;
• and
• an electrostatically charging unit that charges the image carrier by contacting the image carrier.

An image-forming apparatus comprising:

• an image carrier having a conductive base material and a photosensitive layer formed on the base material, the photosensitive layer having an outermost surface layer that contains particles having a number-averaged particle sphericality represented by Formula (1) of approximately 0.7 or less:
• sphericality=4πA/L2 (1), where π represents the circular constant, A represents a projection area of the particle, and L represents a peripheral length of a projected particle image;
• an electrostatically charging unit that charges the image carrier by contacting the image carrier;
• and
• an image-forming unit that forms an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier charged by the electrostatically charging unit and thereby forms a developed image by developing the electrostatic latent image.