Photoconductor, image forming apparatus, image forming process, and process cartridge

A process cartridge comprising a photoconductor, and at least one of an electrostatic latent image forming unit configured to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor, a developing unit configured to develop the electrostatic latent image by means of a toner to form a visible image, a transferring unit configured to transfer the visible image on a recording medium, and a cleaning unit configured to clean the toner remaining on the photoconductor,

• wherein the process cartridge is mounted in an attachable and detachable fashion to a main body of an image forming apparatus,
• wherein the photoconductor comprises a substrate, a charge generating layer, a charge transporting layer, and a crosslinked charge transporting layer in order,
• the charge generating layer contains titanyl phthalocyanine crystal particles that exhibit a highest peak at 27.2°, main peaks at 9.4°, 9.6° and 24.0°, a peak at 7.3° as the lowest angle, and with no peaks in a range between 7.3° and 9.4°, and with no peak at 26.3° as Bragg 2θ angles (±0.2°) in terms of CuK-α characteristic X-ray wavelength at 1.542 Å, and the averaged primary particle size of the titanyl phthalocyanine crystal particles is 0.25 μm or less, and
• the crosslinked charge transporting layer contains a reaction product of a radical polymerizable monomer having three or more functionalities and no charge transporting structure and a radical polymerizable compound having one functionality and a charge transporting structure, and the thickness of the crosslinked charge transporting layer is 1 to 10 μm.

An image forming process comprising:

• forming an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor, developing the electrostatic latent image by means of a toner to form a visible image, transferring the visible image on a recording medium, and fixing the transferred image on the recording medium,
• wherein the photoconductor comprises a substrate, a charge generating layer, a charge transporting layer, and a crosslinked charge transporting layer in order,
• the charge generating layer contains titanyl phthalocyanine crystal particles that exhibit a highest peak at 27.2°, main peaks at 9.4°, 9.6° and 24.0°, a peak at 7.3° as the lowest angle, and with no peaks in a range between 7.3° and 9.4°, and with no peak at 26.3° as Bragg 2θ angles (±0.2°) in terms of CuK-α characteristic X-ray wavelength at 1.542 Å, and the averaged primary particle size of the titanyl phthalocyanine crystal particles is 0.25 μm or less, and
• the crosslinked charge transporting layer contains a reaction product of a radical polymerizable monomer having three or more functionalities and no charge transporting structure and a radical polymerizable compound having one functionality and a charge transporting structure, and the thickness of the crosslinked charge transporting layer is 1 to 10 μm.

An image forming apparatus comprising a photoconductor, an electrostatic latent image forming unit configured to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor, a developing unit configured to develop the electrostatic latent image by means of a toner to form a visible image, a transferring unit configured to transfer the visible image on a recording medium, and a fixing unit configured to fix the transferred image on the recording medium,

• wherein the photoconductor comprises a substrate, a charge generating layer, a charge transporting layer, and a crosslinked charge transporting layer in order,
• the charge generating layer contains titanyl phthalocyanine crystal particles that exhibit a highest peak at 27.2°, main peaks at 9.4°, 9.6° and 24.0°, a peak at 7.3° as the lowest angle, and with no peaks in a range between 7.3° and 9.4°, and with no peak at 26.3° as Bragg 2θ angles (±0.2°) in terms of CuK-α characteristic X-ray wavelength at 1.542 Å, and the averaged primary particle size of the titanyl phthalocyanine crystal particles is 0.25 μm or less, and
• the crosslinked charge transporting layer contains a reaction product of a radical polymerizable monomer having three or more functionalities and no charge transporting structure and a radical polymerizable compound having one functionality and a charge transporting structure, and the thickness of the crosslinked charge transporting layer is 1 to 10 μm.