Electrophotographic belt, electrophotographic image forming apparatus, and method for manufacturing electrophotographic belt

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025164911-A1
Application number	US-202418939828-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 7, 2024
Priority date	Nov 17, 2023
Publication date	May 22, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electrophotographic belt is provided, which includes a base layer and a surface layer in direct contact with the base layer, wherein the surface layer includes heteroaggregates of a first particle and a second particle, the first particle is at least one selected from the group consisting of a hollow silica particle and a solid silica particle, and has a number-average particle diameter of primary particles, which is greater than 30 nm and less than 100 nm, the second particle contains a conductive metal oxide, and has a number-average particle diameter of primary particles, which is 5 nm to 40 nm, the surface layer has protruded portions derived from the heteroaggregates on an outer surface opposite to the surface facing the base layer, an arithmetic mean height (Sa) of the outer surface is 0.1 μm to 0.7 μm, and the base layer includes specific cation and anion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electrophotographic belt comprising:
a base layer; and a surface layer in direct contact with the base layer, wherein the surface layer comprises heteroaggregates of a first particle and a second particle different from the first particle, the first particle is at least one selected from the group consisting of a hollow silica particle and a solid silica particle, and has a number-average particle diameter of primary particles, which is greater than 30 nm and less than 100 nm, the second particle comprises a conductive metal oxide, and has a number-average particle diameter of primary particles of 5 nm to 40 nm, the surface layer has protruded portions derived from the heteroaggregates on an outer surface opposite to the surface facing the base layer, an arithmetic mean height (Sa) of the outer surface is 0.1 μm to 0.7 μm, and the base layer comprises at least one cation selected from the group consisting of cations represented by following formulas (C1) to (C4), and at least one anion selected from the group consisting of anions represented by following formulas (A1) to (A4):

R 1 to R 12 are each independently a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, where at least one selected from the group consisting of R 1 and R 2 , at least one selected from the group consisting of R 3 and R 4 , at least one selected from the group consisting of R 5 to R 8 , and at least one selected from the group consisting of R 9 to R 12 are linear or branched alkyl groups having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, and
R 13 to R 16 are each independently a hydrogen atom, a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms, or an alkoxy group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms.

2 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein the second particle includes at least one selected from the group consisting of a zinc antimonate particle and an antimony-containing tin oxide particle.

3 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein the second particle comprises a zinc antimonate particle.

4 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein a content of the first particle in the surface layer is 1.0% by mass to 27.0% by mass, based on a mass of the surface layer.

5 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein the sum of the content of the first particle and a content of the second particle in the surface layer is 18.0% by mass to 37.0% by mass, based on a mass of the surface layer.

6 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein a content of the first particle in the surface layer is 7.0% by mass to 27.0% by mass, based on a mass of the surface layer.

7 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein a content of the second particle in the surface layer is 13.5% by mass to 25.0% by mass, based on a mass of the surface layer.

8 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein a sum of a content of the cations and a content of the anions in the base layer is 0.8% by mass to 3.5% by mass, based on a mass of the base layer.

9 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein the first particle is a hollow silica particle.

10 . The electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 , wherein the electrophotographic belt is an intermediate transfer belt.

11 . An electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprising the electrophotographic belt according to claim 1 as an intermediate transfer belt.

12 . A method for manufacturing an electrophotographic belt having a base layer and a surface layer in direct contact with the base layer, the method comprising the steps of:
preparing a base layer comprising a following component (e); preparing a curable composition comprising following components (a) to (d); forming a coating film of the curable composition on one surface of the base layer and drying the coating film; and curing the dried coating film: (a) a first particle being at least one selected from the group consisting of a hollow silica particle and a solid silica particle, and having a number-average particle diameter of primary particles, which is greater than 30 nm and less than 100 nm, (b) a second particle being different from the first particle and comprising a conductive metal oxide, and moreover having a number-average particle diameter of primary particles of 5 nm to 40 nm; (c) a (meth)acrylic monomer; (d) at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of 2-butanone and 4-methyl-2-pentanone; (e) a salt comprising at least one cation selected from the group consisting of cations represented by following formulas (C1) to (C4) and at least one anion selected from the group consisting of anions represented by following formulas (A1) to (A4),

R 1 to R 12 are each independently a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, where at least one selected from the group consisting of R 1 and R 2 , at least one selected from the group consisting of R 3 and R 4 , at least one selected from the group consisting of R 5 to R 8 , and at least one selected from the group consisting of R 9 to R 12 are linear or branched alkyl groups having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, and
R 13 to R 16 are each independently a hydrogen atom, a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms, or an alkoxy group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Kasai Naoko
• Takenaga Masahiro
• Tsuji Yasutomo
• Toyonori Masatsugu

Classifications

• G03G15/1685

  Structure, details of the transfer member, e.g. chemical composition · CPC title

• G03G15/1605

  using at least one intermediate support (G03G15/1625 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G03G15/0189

  primary transfer to an intermediate transfer belt (G03G15/0184 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G03G2215/1623

  Transfer belt · CPC title

• G03G15/162 Primary

  details of the the intermediate support, e.g. chemical composition · CPC title