JPS61231558A - Manufacture and regenerating method for electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent image flow phenomenon by mechanically removing solid- phase reaction products. CONSTITUTION:A processing agent selected from carbomates and sulfates of alkaline earth metals, such as Ba, Mg, or Ca, rare earth metals, such as Ce, Y, La, or Eu, and transition metals except the rare earth metals, such as Fe, Ti, or Zr, and triiron tetroxide, and clay minerals each having layer structure, such as kaolinite type or montmorilonite type, is brought into contact with the surface of a photosensitive body to mechanically remove at least a part of the reaction products produced by the solid phase reaction of said surface and said agent, thus permitting the characteristics resisting the image flow phenomenon to be remarkably enhanced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing and remanufacturing electrophotographic photoreceptors. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing and/or reproducing an amorphous silicon photoreceptor that does not cause image deletion in a high humidity environment.

<Prior art> Conventionally, electrophotographic photoreceptors include those in which fine powders such as Od8 and ZnO are dispersed and coated in an organic substance, 8e negative photoreceptors formed by vapor deposition with the addition of Muhi and To, and polyvinyl vinyl. Organic optical conductors (OPOs) such as lecarpazole and trinitrofluorene have been used. In recent years, silane gas (8
1a H! l1l-1-! ) Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (hereinafter referred to as a-81) deposited by the plasma OVD method
)'s optical properties have attracted attention, and studies are underway to apply it to solar cells, optical sensors, image pickup tubes, etc., as well as use it as an electrophotographic photoreceptor. As mentioned above, a-81 is formed by the plasma CJVD method using silane gas as the main raw material, but its characteristics as a photoreceptor (electrostatic voltage, spectral sensitivity, printing durability) are well suited for various uses (plain paper, copying). (machines, laser printers, facsimiles) Various efforts have been made to make them compliant with K.

For example, diborane, ammonia, oxygen, hydrocarbons, germane (GotI H2n+t), fluorinated silane, etc. are added to the raw material gas, and the film composition on the metal substrate is changed in the film thickness direction to create a multilayer structure. Things are being tried. (Hereinafter, the photoreceptor having silicon hydride as the base material will be referred to as a-81).

A-81 has the following superior characteristics compared to the existing photoreceptor described above.

(It is harmless and non-toxic.)

■ It is thermally stable (crystallization temperature is 4tOO℃ or higher, crystallization temperature of se is 0℃, photoreceptor using organic material, OPO, ZnO, 0 (18), (exhibits high thermal stability).

■ High photosensitivity, and the photosensitive wavelength range is almost uniform throughout the visible light wavelength range.

■Surface hardness is 10,000 (Vickers hard Hiro.

(above) It is not susceptible to surface damage such as scratches.

Due to these advantages, attempts have been made to apply a-81 as a high-performance electrophotographic photoreceptor to high-speed PPO, laser printers, facsimiles, etc., but it suffers from the following problems.

<Problems to be solved by the invention> For the first time, a-81 exhibits stable photoreceptor performance even under various environmental conditions due to its chemical and thermal stability and high surface hardness as described above, and has been used many times. At the same time, it was expected to achieve high printing durability that would withstand copying. However, in reality, when electrophotographic copying is performed under conditions of high humidity, specifically conditions of relative humidity exceeding 70%, clear images cannot be obtained and the outline of the image becomes blurred. It has been found that a phenomenon C (hereinafter referred to as ``image blur'') in which no image is obtained occurs. This phenomenon becomes more noticeable as copying is repeated, and in general, image blurring occurs under high humidity when a regular Pro (plain paper copying machine) performs several thousand copy-exposure-development-transfer operations. do. However, it has been confirmed that even if image blurring occurs under high humidity, a clear image can be obtained by copying again under low humidity. Therefore, in order to prevent image blurring, the a-Bi photoreceptor drum is constantly heated to aO~10°C, and even if the atmospheric humidity changes, the relative humidity near the photoreceptor drum surface is always maintained at ~! Measures can be taken to keep the temperature below θ, but in this case, loading a heater inside the drum and installing a temperature control mechanism inevitably increases the cost of the copying machine and complicates the copying machine mechanism.

The present invention discloses a method for preventing image deletion by improving the A-81 photoreceptor itself.

Means for Solving the Problems> The present inventors conducted various studies to improve these problems and arrived at the present invention. That is, the gist of the present invention is
A processing agent selected from among carbonates and sulfates of alkaline earth metals, rare earth metals, and transition metals, triiron tetroxide, and clay minerals having a layered structure on the surface of the photoreceptor (IE electrophotographic photoreceptor surface material hardening agent) By bringing a substance that causes a phase reaction into contact with the photoreceptor surface and mechanically removing at least a part of the reaction product generated by the solid phase reaction between the surface of the photoreceptor and the processing agent, image flow characteristics are significantly improved. The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor. The method of the present invention can be used not only for new photoreceptors immediately after manufacture, but also for returning electrophotographic photoreceptors with image deletion.

The present invention will be explained in detail below.

First, the substance (processing agent) that causes a solid phase reaction with the electrophotographic photoreceptor surface substance used in the method of the present invention is B.
a, Mg, alkaline earth metals such as Oa, Oe, Y, La
selected from carbonates and sulfates of rare earth metals such as , mu, and transition metals other than rare earths such as Fe, Ti, and Zr, triiron tetroxide, and clay minerals with a layered structure such as kaolinite and montmorillonite clays. It will be done.

The surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is generally brought into contact with the processing agent using a polishing device.

Any polishing device may be used as long as it can polish the surface of a cylindrical drum, but a method of polishing with a pad while constantly in contact with the processing agent as shown in FIG. 7 is preferable. In the figure, ■ is the photosensitive drum, ■ is the bearing that fixes it, ■ is the pulley that transmits the rotation from the motor, ■ is the container that always holds the processing agent, ■ is the one that holds the pad, and The photosensitive drum is moved in the axial direction Ks&tl at a constant speed. ■ is a variable speed motor.

(2) is a jig for fixing the pad attached to (9) for polishing the surface of the photoreceptor drum. A normal pad may be used as long as it is not too hard, but soft cloth or non-woven cloth is preferable. In order to avoid line contact with the surface of the photoreceptor, the size of the pad is preferably concentric with the photoreceptor and has a width at least in the circumferential direction of the photoreceptor.

It is sufficient if the container (2) is a little larger than the photoreceptor drum, but if it is too large, the amount of processing agent charged will increase, which is undesirable. Also, depending on the processing conditions, the container (■) may not necessarily be necessary, and the processing agent may be initially placed on the pad (■), and then the pad (■) may be placed evenly over the entire surface of the photoconductor during rotation. If you move it, try to spread the treatment agent evenly. The number of revolutions is usually 10
It is carried out using w200r and pom, but λo-jo r, p and m are preferable in order to reduce the scattering of the processing agent.

If the rotation speed is low, the processing time will be long. −〇～j Or,
In the range of p and In, the processing time is usually about 30 minutes.

The assembly accuracy of the polishing device is desirably 70μm or less.

The particle size of the processing agent is different from that of ordinary hard abrasives, and is several 70 μm.
Although it may be as large as m or more, it is preferably 30 μm or less. This is because the processing agent is softer than the surface of the photoreceptor.
Since it is the processing agent that is destroyed, the particle size of the processing agent becomes smaller during the polishing process. For example, when a commercially available special grade reagent of Ba0O, prepared with a milk bee and having an average particle size of around 30 μm, is polished using the apparatus shown in Fig. 7 for -jr, p, m, IO minutes, the average particle size changes! It is crushed to micrometer size. It is assumed that this crushed cross-section of the processing agent is chemically active and easily undergoes a solid phase reaction under the high pressure of several K bar generated at the contact point between the processing agent and the surface of the photoreceptor. Therefore, the particle size distribution and average particle size of the treatment agent do not need to be strictly controlled, unlike ordinary hard abrasives.

<Examples> Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to Examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following Examples unless the gist thereof is exceeded.

Example: One A-81 photoreceptor drum was prepared under the same manufacturing conditions, and the polishing time and processing agent were changed to polish approximately 1% of the width of the photoreceptor drum under seven conditions.

The photoreceptor drum used had a film formed under the following conditions.

Washed /ko0TIII (lX3'lθu1 cylindrical (
Surface roughness 0. λ8) Set the Aj substrate in the reaction container,
After baking in a vacuum for 30 minutes at 100°C or higher, the mixture was evacuated for 930 minutes using an oil diffusion pump and heated to λxio'''''T.
The vacuum level of orr is busy. The oil rotary pump was switched again to flow the reaction gas, and a film was formed with the following layer configuration.

Photosensitive layer NH, 781H, -〇, flathead, B2M, /81
H, w@oVppm, substrate temperature 3/j℃ljO minute film formation (2!μ) Plasma power source: DC plasma current density: 0. /jmA7d1 surface layer: a
-81ox;n 11.07Bin, cod/, 0;! Minute film formation (~1000A) Plasma power source 200Hz Plasma current density: 4toμA/cd The processing agents include barium carbonate, calcium carbonate, triiron tetroxide, and 5urfinoo (polyx) manufactured by Fujimi Abrasives Co., Ltd.
x fk series 1jj cloth) ”, silicone carbide,
Zirconium oxide or the like was used. The photoreceptor drum was loaded in the polishing machine fILK shown in FIG. 1, and polished for 1 minute and 10 minutes with each processing agent at rotations of 1 s [-2 Or, P, and m. After polishing, the photoreceptor drum is copied multiple times using a commercially available copying machine (U-B1xV, 2 manufactured by Konishiroku Co., Ltd.) under normal humidity. Every thousand pieces busy 0
℃♂! Copying was performed under high humidity conditions in the city, and image smearing was evaluated.

As a result, when processed with barium carbonate, calcium carbonate, and triiron tetroxide for 70 minutes, clear images were obtained without image blurring even after 30,000 sheets were processed. When processed for 1 minute, some image blurring occurred. Areas that were not processed at all, "5urfinOOO" silicone carbide, zirconium oxide, etc. all started to have image blurring, and by 70,000 times the image had completely blurred.

Example A-81 photoreceptor similar to the photoreceptor used in Example/ was set in a copier and copied 70,000 times at room temperature, yielding 711g at 30°C.
After confirming that image smearing occurred under high humidity conditions, the photosensitive drum was set in the polishing device shown in Figure 3.
0 r, p, m, about 1 minute each using treatment agents of barium carbonate, silicone carbide, zirconium oxide, and triiron tetroxide! Sub-polished.

As a result, only the barium carbonate and triiron tetroxide treatment did not cause image fading under the high humidity condition of 30° C./j76 immediately after polishing, and the initial good image quality was restored. All other processing agents had no effect and caused image deletion. Even if the hindlimb photoreceptor is overlaid and re-photographed, the parts treated with barium carbonate and triiron tetroxide will maintain good image quality without causing image blurring under high humidity. Obtained.

<Effects of the Invention> According to the method of the present invention, it is possible to obtain a photoreceptor that does not cause image deletion in a high humidity environment, especially in the production and reproduction of amorphous silicon photoreceptors.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an example of a polishing apparatus used in the method of the present invention. In the figure, (1): Photoreceptor drum (4) Container holding the second processing agent Applicant Mitsubishi Chemical Industries, Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Hase - 7 others 1 Procedural amendment (voluntary) 1 Case Indication Patent Application No. 72355 of 1985 2 Title of Invention Method for Manufacturing and Recycling Electrophotographic Photoreceptor (596) Mitsubishi Chemical Industries, Ltd. (1 idiot) 5 Detailed description of the invention in the specification to be amended Column 6 Contents of amendment (1) In the 4th line of page 10 of the specification, “G120/5iH=
=1.0: J means rN, O/SiH, =1. O:
Correct it with J. that's all

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An electrophotographic photoreceptor characterized in that at least a portion of a solid phase reaction product produced by contacting the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with a substance that causes a solid phase reaction is mechanically removed. Methods of production and/or reproduction. (2) The substance that causes a solid phase reaction with the surface substance is selected from carbonates and sulfates of alkaline earth metals, rare earth metals, and transition metals, triiron tetroxide, and clay minerals having a layered structure. The method according to claim 1.