JPH05142805A - Manufacture of electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form a photosensitive body having either a charge generating layer or a charge transporting layer with high adhesive property and dense, uniform, and stable quality on a photosensitive substrate. CONSTITUTION:A charge generating material or a charge transporting material is dispersed or dissolved in an aqueous medium to which a proper amount of a surfactant is added and an aluminum substrate 1 is immersed in a treatment liquid 4, which is the heated resulting solution, and electricity is applied for a short time and stopped, and the photoconductor substrate is immersed further in the heated solution to form either a charge generating layer or a charge transporting layer on the aluminum substrate l.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a function-separated type photosensitive member has been put into practical use because it has a large material selectivity and is effective. Of these, a stack-type function-separated photoreceptor in which a charge generation layer and a charge transport layer are sequentially laminated on a photoreceptor substrate has attracted attention, and its development has been advanced in recent years. As a method for forming the charge generation layer or the charge transport layer in such a laminated type function separation type photoreceptor,
Generally, a vapor deposition method, a polymer binding method, a slip casting method and the like are known.

On the other hand, in recent years, when a charge generating layer or a charge transporting layer of a photoreceptor is prepared, the charge generating material or the charge transporting material is dispersed in an aqueous solvent with a surfactant,
Alternatively, a so-called micelle electrolysis method of solubilizing the resulting dispersion, or forming a charge generation layer or a charge transport layer made of the above material by applying current in the solution, for example,
JP-A-2-37355, JP-A-2-163745
It is known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-191960, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-191961, and the like.

[0004]

However, the above vapor deposition method may decompose depending on the type of the photosensitive material, and in the polymer binding method, the charge generation layer may be peeled off during the production of the charge transport layer, There is a problem that it is very difficult to obtain a uniform thin film layer. Furthermore, in the slip casting method, impurities such as solvents enter the layer,
As a result, there is a problem that stress strain occurs in the layer when the solvent is dried. In addition, since a large amount of organic solvent is used, disposal of waste liquid is a serious environmental problem.

On the other hand, according to the above-mentioned micelle electrolysis method, although the charge generation layer or the charge transport layer generated by energization has good adhesion to the aluminum substrate, it has a drawback that the layer density is not dense.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has good adhesion to a photosensitive substrate,
An object of the present invention is to provide an electrophotographic photoreceptor provided with a charge generation layer or a charge transport layer which is a uniform, dense and stable quality thin film layer.

[0007]

In order to achieve this object, a method of manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive member according to the present invention is an electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising a photoconductive substrate and a charge generation layer or a charge transport layer formed on the photosensitive substrate. In producing the body, the charge generating material or charge transporting material is dispersed or solubilized in an aqueous solvent containing an appropriate amount of a surfactant, and the photoreceptor substrate is dipped in a heated solution of this material and subjected to a short-time energization treatment. After that, the energization is stopped, and the photoconductor substrate is dipped and held in the heating solution to laminate the charge generation layer or the charge transport layer on the photoconductor substrate.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Β-type copper phthalocyanine was used as the charge generation material, and polyoxyethylene dodecyl ether, which is a nonionic surfactant, was used as the surfactant. The charge generation material dispersion liquid was prepared by the following procedure.

Polyoxyethylene dodecyl ether and lithium bromide (LiBr) as a supporting salt are added to ion-exchanged water so that their respective concentrations become 2.0 milliM and 0.1M. Next, β as a charge generation material was added to the above solution.
Type copper phthalocyanine is added so as to have a concentration of 7.0 mM, and the mixture is stirred for several hours. The charge generation material dispersion is stirred for 30 minutes by ultrasonic irradiation, and then left standing at room temperature (about 25 ° C) for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the supernatant was collected and used as a treatment liquid.

As the processing apparatus, the three-electrode cell shown in FIG. 1 was used. An aluminum substrate 1 was used as a sample electrode, a platinum plate 2 was used as a counter electrode, and an Ag / AgCl electrode 3 was used as a reference electrode. In forming the charge generation layer, the aluminum substrate was ultrasonically degreased in acetone for 5 minutes. Treatment liquid 4
Is heated to 90 ° C in a constant temperature bath 5, an aluminum substrate is put therein, and a galvanostat 6 is used to set the current density.
The cathode was energized at 0.8 mA / cm 2 for 1 minute, the energization was stopped after that, and left at natural potential for 20 minutes to form a β-type copper phthalocyanine film on the aluminum substrate. Thereafter, the aluminum substrate was taken out of the treatment liquid and washed with water and ethanol to form a charge generation layer having a film thickness of about 0.2 μm. The charge generation layer thus produced was a dense film with good adhesion because the dense film formed by electrolysis on the surface of the substrate was superposed with the dense film due to heat.

As a mechanism for forming the charge generation layer on the aluminum substrate, first, an electric current is applied to deposit the charge generation material on the surface of the aluminum substrate 1 to form an extremely thin layer having good adhesion. Next, even if the energization is stopped, this time it is a heating solution, so the dissociation equilibrium of the charge generating material and the surfactant surrounding the charge generating material is disrupted in this heating solution, and the ultrathin film of the charge generating material electrodeposited It is considered that a dense charge generation layer having good adhesion to the photosensitive substrate was formed by aggregating on the charge generation layer in order to obtain an energy-stabilized state.

As the above-mentioned charge generation layer forming material,
In addition to the β-type copper phthalocyanine described above, other phthalocyanine pigments, bisazo pigments, compounds such as anthracene, anthraquinone, indigo, porphyrin, and derivatives thereof can be mentioned. Further, as the surfactant, in addition to the above-mentioned nonionic surfactant, a cationic surfactant and the like can be applied. Further, as the supporting salt, in addition to the above-mentioned lithium bromide, various halide salts, sulfates, acetates and the like can be applied.

In the above embodiment, the case where the charge generating layer is formed on the aluminum substrate 1 has been described. However, when the charge transporting layer is further laminated on the charge generating layer, a charge transporting material is coated or a charge transporting layer is formed. Dip. For example, a hydrazone-based charge transport material may be blended in a polycarbonate solvent and coated.

In each of the above embodiments, the charge generation layer is formed on the photosensitive substrate, and the charge transport layer is laminated thereon. However, the order of stacking the charge generation layer and the charge transport layer is described. Of course, it also applies to the replaced ones. In this case, first dip the photoconductor substrate in the one in which the charge transport material is mixed in the surfactant-mixed aqueous solution, and in the heating solution, turn on the photoconductor substrate for a short time and then in the heating solution. The charge transport layer is formed by the immersion and holding. Then, the charge generation layer is formed on the charge transport layer by coating or dipping.

[0015]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the method of manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive member of the present invention, a thin film charge having a good adhesion and a uniform and stable quality on the photosensitive member substrate. A generator layer or charge transport layer is obtained. In addition, since the electrolysis time is short, there is an advantage that the electrolysis method and the heating solvent dipping method can be used to produce it with relatively high productivity.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a processing device that realizes a method for manufacturing a photoconductor according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Aluminum substrate 2 Counter electrode 3 Reference electrode 4 Treatment liquid 5 Constant temperature bath 6 Galvanostat

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In producing an electrophotographic photoreceptor comprising a charge generation layer or a charge transport layer laminated on a photoreceptor substrate, a charge generation material or a charge generation material in an aqueous solvent containing an appropriate amount of a surfactant. By dispersing or solubilizing the charge transport material, immersing the photoreceptor substrate in a heating solution of the charge transporting material, stopping energization after a short-time energization treatment, and further immersing and holding the photoreceptor substrate in the heating solution. A method for producing an electrophotographic photosensitive member, characterized in that the charge generation layer or the charge transport layer is laminated on the photosensitive substrate.