Negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member, image forming process and electrophotographic apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsJun Ohira, Makoto Aoki, Kazuto Hosoi
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Abstract
A negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member, has, between a cylindrical substrate and a photoconductive layer, a first lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms and a second lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms, and on its photoconductive layer has an upper-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms. The first lower-part layer is a layer containing a periodic-table Group 13 element, and the upper-part layer has a region capable of retaining electrification charges.
Claims11
A negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising:
- a cylindrical substrate having a conductive surface, and
- a photoconductive layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms, wherein
- a first lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms and a second lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms are provided between the cylindrical substrate and the photoconductive layer,
- an upper-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms is provided on the photoconductive layer,
- the first lower-part layer is a layer containing an element belonging to Group 13 of the periodic table,
- the upper-part layer has a region capable of retaining electrification charges, and
- the first lower-part layer has a layer thickness of from 0.1 μm or more to 10 μm or less, and the product of i) the content, in atom ppm, of the Group 13 element, based on the total number of atoms of constituent elements contained in the first lower-part layer and ii) the layer thickness of the first lower-part layer is from 8 atom ppm·μm or more to 240 atom ppm·μm or less.
An electrophotographic apparatus comprising:
- charging means for charging a surface of a negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member electrostatically;
- latent image forming means for forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member, thus charged;
- developing means for moving a toner held on a developer carrying member, to the surface of the negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member to develop the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image on the surface of the same;
- transfer means for transferring the toner image from the surface of the negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member to a transfer material;
- and
- cleaning means for removing from the negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member a transfer residual toner having remained on the surface of the negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member;
- wherein;
- the negatively-chargeable electrophotographic photosensitive member comprises:
- a cylindrical substrate having a conductive surface, and
- a photoconductive layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms, wherein
- a first lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms and a second lower-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms are provided between the cylindrical substrate and the photoconductive layer,
- an upper-part layer formed of a non-single crystal material containing silicon atoms is provided on the photoconductive layer,
- the first lower-part layer is a layer containing an element belonging to Group 13 of the periodic table,
- the upper-part layer has a region capable of retaining electrification charges, and
- the first lower-part layer has a layer thickness of from 0.1 μm or more to 10 μm or less, and the product of i) the content, in atom ppm, of the Group 13 element, based on the total number of atoms of constituent elements contained in the first lower-part layer and ii) the layer thickness of the first lower-part layer is from 8 atom ppm·μm or more to 240 atom ppm·μm or less.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.