JP3054861B2 - Electrophotographic photoreceptor - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive member used in a recording apparatus using an electrophotographic method, such as a copying machine and a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of a general photosensitive member used in a copying machine or a printer using electrophotography. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a conductive substrate, 2 denotes an amorphous photoconductive layer mainly composed of silicon atoms, and 3 denotes a surface protective film for protecting the photoconductive layer 2.

[0003] The electrophotographic photoreceptor having the above structure is
This film is formed by glow discharge decomposition of SiH ₄ (silane) gas, and H ₂ gas is used to reduce dangling bonds.
And B (boron) in order to improve the charge retention function. Then, the dark resistivity is set to 10 ¹² to 10
^{It is} raised to ¹³ Ωcm or more so that it can be applied to the Carlson type electrophotographic process (copying process).

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional amorphous (a-Si) electrophotographic photoreceptor containing silicon as a base, a good image is initially obtained. However, after storage for a long time in the atmosphere or high humidity atmosphere, image defects, especially blurring and image deletion, may occur, and if printing is repeated many times continuously, image blurring may occur. There was a problem that there was.

The cause of this abnormal image is that the outermost surface of the photoreceptor is affected by chemical species such as ozone, nitrogen oxides, and nascent oxygen generated by corona discharge in the machine process, and some kind of chemical deterioration occurs. It is thought to be due to occurrence.

In order to prevent the occurrence of such image defects and to improve the printing resistance, various types of surface protective films (a
-Si compound) has been developed, but a surface protective film that can cope with all the factors has not been obtained.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has excellent moisture resistance and corona discharge resistance, can prevent occurrence of abnormalities such as image blur, and can provide a good output image. It is intended to provide a photoconductor for electrophotography.

[0008]

The electrophotographic photosensitive member according to the present invention has the following construction.

(1) In an electrophotographic photoreceptor having a surface protective film laminated on a photoconductive layer, the surface protective film is formed of amorphous a-SiNC , and the surface is treated with pure water in the air. And the contact angle of the photoconductive layer should be 76 ° or more.
Was formed of an amorphous material containing silicon as a base material .

[0010]

[0011]

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of an embodiment of the present invention. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 3 denote the same parts.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a conductive substrate, which is generally made of an aluminum material. As a special example, a transparent insulating plate made of glass, acrylic, plastic or the like is used.
A transparent electrode of TO, SnO ₂ , ZnO or the like may be used.

Reference numeral 2 denotes an amorphous photoconductive layer mainly composed of silicon atoms, and has a structure in which at least one film having a different function is laminated in one or more layers. 4
In the surface protective layer laminated on top of the photoconductive layer 2, moisture photoconductive layer 2, No _X, is intended to protect from the effects of oxidation or external pressure, the amorphous to the silicon as a matrix a-SiC or a-SiNC, as shown in FIG.
6 ° or more.

The electrophotographic photoreceptor of this embodiment is provided with a surface protective layer having a contact angle θ of pure water measured in the air of 76 ° or more on the photoreceptor surface as described above.
It is excellent in moisture resistance and corona discharge resistance, can prevent abnormal images such as image blurring, and can provide good output images over a long period of time.

Table 1 shows the contact angle of the surface protective film of each composition and the state of the printed image after being left in high humidity.
"○" indicates that a very good printed image was obtained, "△"
Is an abnormal print image that is partially blurred,
“X” indicates that an abnormal print image that is completely blurred has occurred.

[0017]

[Table 1]

Regarding the printing result, the contact angle of the surface protective film is
With respect to the photoreceptor having a temperature of 76 ° or more, no blur was generated in the printed image.

Further, a-SiN, a-SiC, a-Si
When 100,000 copies were made using a photoreceptor having each surface of NC as a surface protective film, a dry developing process resulted in 3 copies.
No abnormal image such as blurring occurred in the printed image of each photosensitive member having each kind of surface protective film. However, in the process of the wet developing method, the photoconductor for surface protection of a-SiC and a-SiNC did not generate an abnormal image such as blur, but the photoconductor of the surface protection film of a-Si: H showed a printed image. An abnormal image such as a blur on the entire surface occurred, and an abnormal image such as a partial blur occurred on the photosensitive member having the a-SiN surface protective film.

As described above, the contact surface of pure water in the air on the surface of the surface protective film 4 of the photoreceptor is approximately 76 by using a-SiC or a-SiNC amorphous material containing silicon as a base material. By setting it to be not less than °, a good output image without image abnormality can be obtained.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain excellent output images over a long period of time by being excellent in moisture resistance and corona discharge resistance, preventing image abnormalities such as image blurring from occurring. is there.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a contact angle of pure water on a photoconductor surface.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 conductive substrate 2 photoconductive layer 4 surface protective film 5 air 6 water drop (pure water)

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-61-87159 (JP, A) JP-A-60-22131 (JP, A) JP-A-6-266139 (JP, A) JP-A-1- 277243 (JP, A) JP-A-1-289996 (JP, A) JP-A-1-289962 (JP, A) JP-A 1-289963 (JP, A) JP-A-5-188618 (JP, A) JP-A 8-171220 (JP, A) JP-A 8-171221 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 5/08 303 G03G 5/08 305

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a surface protective film laminated on a photoconductive layer, wherein the surface protective film is made of an amorphous material.
The photoconductive layer is formed of a-SiNC so that the contact angle of pure water in the atmosphere on the surface becomes 76 ° or more, and the photoconductive layer is made of silicon.
A photoconductor for electrophotography, wherein the photoconductor is formed of an amorphous material whose main component is silicon .