Electrophotographic member, process cartridge, and electrophotographic apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9939746-B2
Application number	US-201615183383-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2016
Priority date	Jun 18, 2015
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

The electrophotographic member includes an electroconductive substrate and an electroconductive surface layer. The surface layer contains an electroconductivity imparting agent and a polyrotaxane including a first and a second polyrotaxane molecule.
The first polyrotaxane molecule includes a first cyclic molecule, and the second polyrotaxane molecule includes a second cyclic molecule. The cyclic molecules of the first and the second polyrotaxane molecules are bound in such a manner that the oxygen atom of a hydroxy group of the first cyclic molecule and the oxygen atom of a hydroxy group of the second cyclic molecule are bound with a structure represented by the following formula (1):

*—R 1 —Z—R 2 —**

In this formula, z represents a linking group, and “*” and “**” represent binding sites to be bound to either of the oxygen atoms derived from the hydroxy groups of the first and the second cyclic molecule. R 1 and R 2 each represent a specific structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrophotographic member comprising:
an electroconductive substrate; and
an electroconductive surface layer containing:
an electroconductivity imparting agent; and
a bound polyrotaxane of which a first polyrotaxane and a second polyrotaxane are crosslinked,

the first polyrotaxane molecule including first cyclic molecules each of which has at least one hydroxy group, and a first linear-chain molecule threaded through the first cyclic molecules, the first linear-chain molecule including two blocking groups at both ends thereof so as to prevent the first cyclic molecules from being dissociated from the first linear-chain molecule,
the second polyrotaxane molecule including a-second-cyclic molecules each of which has at least one hydroxy group, and a second linear-chain molecule threaded through the second cyclic molecules, the second linear-chain molecule including two blocking group at both ends thereof so as to prevent the second cyclic molecules from being dissociated from the second linear-chain molecule,
each of the first cyclic molecules being bound to each of the second cyclic molecules with a linkage which binds an oxygen atom derived from the hydroxy group in each of the first cyclic molecules, and
an oxygen atom derived from the hydroxy group in each of the second cyclic molecules,
the linkage having structures at both ends adjacent to the respective oxygen atoms, wherein
each of the structures is selected from the group consisting of structures represented by formulae (2) to (7):

wherein
in structural formula (2), R 3 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, and n1 and n2 each represent an integer of 1 to 4,
in structural formula (3), m represents 0 or 1,
in structural formula (5), p1 and p2 each represent 0 or 1,
in structural formula (6), q1 represents 0 or 1, and
in structural formula (7), R 4 represents a hydrocarbon group having a carbon number of 5 to 47 or an alkyl group having a polyether structure and a total carbon number of 5 to 47, and R 5 represent a hydrogen atom or a methyl group.

2. The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein the first cyclic molecules and the second cyclic molecules further have a group represented by the following structural formula (8): —O—R 6 ,
wherein R 6 represents a group selected from the group consisting of aliphatic hydrocarbon groups having a carbon number of 5 or 6, alkoxy-substituted alkyl groups having a total carbon number of 5 or 6, and thioether-substituted alkyl groups having a total carbon number of 5 or 6.

3. The electrophotographic member according to claim 1 , wherein the electroconductivity imparting agent is at least one of carbon black and an ionic conducting agent.

4. A process cartridge capable of being removably attached to an electrophotographic apparatus, the process cartridge comprising the electrophotographic member as set forth in claim 1 .

5. An electrophotographic apparatus comprising:
an electrophotographic photosensitive member; and
the electrophotographic member as set forth in claim 1 .

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Arimura Hideya
• Urushihara Shohei

Classifications

• G03G15/0233 Primary

  Structure, details of the charging member, e.g. chemical composition, surface properties · CPC title

• G03G5/105 Primary

  comprising electroconductive macromolecular compounds · CPC title

• G03G15/0812

  characterised by the developer regulating means, e.g. structure of doctor blade · CPC title

• G03G15/0818

  characterised by the structure of the donor member, e.g. surface properties · CPC title