Electrophotographic member, electrophotographic image forming apparatus and method of producing electrophotographic member

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026036926-A1
Application number	US-202519277594-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 23, 2025
Priority date	Jul 31, 2024
Publication date	Feb 5, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electrophotographic member having a base layer and a surface layer in direct contact with the base layer is provided, in which the surface layer contains heteroaggregates of first particles and second particles different from the first particles, the first particles are chain-like inorganic oxide particles, the second particles contain a conductive metal oxide, the number-average particle diameter of primary particles is 5 to 40 nm, the surface layer has protruded portions derived from the heteroaggregates on an outer surface thereof opposite to a surface that faces the base layer, an arithmetic mean height (Sa) of the outer surface is 0.1 to 0.7 μm, and the base layer contains specific cations and anions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electrophotographic member comprising a base layer and
a surface layer in direct contact with the base layer, wherein the surface layer comprises heteroaggregates of first particles and second particles different from the first particles, the first particles are chain-like inorganic oxide particles, the second particles comprise a conductive metal oxide, and a number-average particle diameter of primary particles of the second particles is 5 to 40 nm, the surface layer has protruded portions derived from the heteroaggregates on an outer surface thereof opposite to a surface that faces the base layer, an arithmetic mean height (Sa) of the outer surface is 0.1 to 0.7 μm, the base layer comprises at least one cation selected from the group consisting of cations represented by following Formulae (C1) to (C4) and at least one anion selected from the group consisting of anions represented by following Formulae (A1) to (A4):

where,
R 1 to R 12 are each independently a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, provided that 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 a linear or branched alkyl group 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 member according to claim 1 , wherein
a number average value of long diameters of the first particles is 30 to 100 nm, and a number average value of a value ratio of long diameters to short diameters of the first particles (long diameter/short diameter) is 3 to 8.

3 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein the first particles are chain-like silica particles.

4 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein the second particles comprise at least one particle selected from the group consisting of zinc antimonate particles and antimony-doped tin oxide particles.

5 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein a sum of content of the first particles and content of the second particles in the surface layer, based on a mass of the surface layer, is 4.0 to 37.0 mass %.

6 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein content of the first particles in the surface layer, based on a mass of the surface layer, is 0.2 to 27.0 mass %.

7 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein content of the second particles in the surface layer, based on a mass of the surface layer, is 3.8 to 30.0 mass %.

8 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein a sum of content of the cations and content of the anions in the base layer, based on a mass of the base layer, is 0.4 to 3.5 mass %.

9 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein
the base layer comprises base layer particles, and protruded portions derived from the base layer particles are present on the surface of the surface layer, the protruded portions derived from the base layer particles have a height of 0.1 to 5.0 μm and a width of 0.5 to 5.0 μm, and an average number of the protruded portions in an area of 256 μm×192 μm is 1 to 22.

10 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 9 , wherein a number-average particle diameter of the base layer particles is 1.5 to 3.5 μm.

11 . The electrophotographic member according to claim 9 , wherein the base layer particles are silicone particles.

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

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

14 . A method of producing an electrophotographic member having a base layer and a surface layer in direct contact with the base layer,
the production method comprising: preparing a base layer comprising component (e) below; preparing a curable composition comprising component (a) to component (d) below; forming a coating of the curable composition on one of surfaces of the base layer and drying the coating; and curing the dried coating: (a) first particles that are chain-like inorganic oxide particles; (b) second particles that are different from the first particles, and have a number-average particle diameter of primary particles of 5 to 40 nm, and comprise a conductive metal oxide; (c) (meth)acrylic monomers; (d) at least one solvent selected from the group consisting of 2-butanone and 4-methyl-2-pentanone; (e) a salt containing at least one cation selected from the group consisting of cations represented by following Formulae (C1) to (C4) and at least one anion selected from the group consisting of anions represented by following Formulae (A1) to (A4):

where
R 1 to R 12 are each independently a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, provided that 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 a linear or branched alkyl group 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

• Takenaga Masahiro
• Kasai Naoko
• Toyonori Masatsugu
• Tsuji Yasutomo
• Kitano Yuji
• Ishio Shohei

Classifications

• G03G2215/1623

  Transfer belt · CPC title

• G03G15/162 Primary

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

• G03G15/1685

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