JPH0422964A - Method for roughening surface of photosensitive layer of electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form the surface of the photosensitive layer into a desirable adequate roughness and small in deformation ever after use for a long period and to obtain a good-quality image by grinding and heat treating the surface of the photosensitive layer so as to form a roughness of a depth of 0.1-2.0mmu and a width of 2-20mmu in parallel to the surface. CONSTITUTION:The photosensitive layer 2 formed on a conductive substrate 1 has sharp roughness immediately after grinding on the surface, but the peaks of the roughness are increased in the fluidity of the material for forming the photosensitive layer and deformed by heat treating (annealing) at a temperature of 200+ or - 10 deg.C near the glass transition point of As2Se3, resulting in restraining deformation of the peaks of the photosensitive layer due to friction with transfer paper, cleaning blade, and the like, and not changing the surface of the photosensitive layer so much even after an extended period of use, thus permitting the obtained photosensitive body to form good images stably even after a long period of use.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an electrophotographic photosensitive layer comprising an amorphous selenium-arsenic alloy having a composition close to the stoichiometric composition (^s, Se,). This invention relates to a method for roughening the surface of a photosensitive layer of a body.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, it has been believed that electrophotographic photoreceptors must have a smooth surface from the viewpoint of image forming characteristics, reliability, and the like. Selenium-based photoreceptors, which have been widely used in the past, have a photosensitive layer made of amorphous selenium or selenium alloy formed on a conductive substrate by vacuum evaporation.
The surface of the photosensitive layer was formed as a glossy smooth surface (mirror surface).

However, if the surface of the photosensitive layer is too smooth, (a) the frictional force between the cleaning blade and the photosensitive layer increases, causing scratches that appear as linear image defects such as white streaks on the resulting image.

c) The adhesion between the toner and the photosensitive layer increases, resulting in poor toner transferability and cleaning performance.

(C) The adhesion between the transfer paper and the photosensitive layer increases, resulting in poor paper separation.

Problems such as this arise.

In order to prevent such defects, it has been found that it is effective to keep the surface of the photosensitive layer to a certain degree of roughness. Various methods have been proposed. The present applicant has disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-136737 that a photoconductor having a photoconductor layer whose surface is made of a selenium-arsenic alloy is preferably a photoconductor in which the surface of the photoconductor layer is roughened by superfinishing. I suggested something.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, since the above-mentioned superfinishing process is a method in which the surface of the photosensitive layer is directly polished with a grindstone, the surface of the photosensitive layer is
As shown in a), the edge is sharp, and when image formation is repeated, contact between the transfer paper and the cleaning blade causes 121!
As shown in I (c), the ridges of the rough surface are likely to be scraped. As a result, it is difficult to maintain an appropriate initial surface roughness (shape) of the photoreceptor for a long period of time, causing defects such as linear scratches on the image.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and makes it possible to obtain a surface of a photosensitive layer made of an amorphous selenium-arsenic alloy with a desirable and appropriate roughness, and to obtain good images with little change in shape even after long-term use. The object of the present invention is to provide a method for roughening the surface of a photosensitive layer to obtain a rough surface.

[Means to solve the problem]

According to the present invention, the above problem can be solved by changing the stoichiometric composition (^5
After roughening the surface of the photosensitive layer made of an amorphous selenium-arsenic alloy with a composition close to 2Ses) by polishing,
Heat treatment is performed at a temperature of 00°C ± 10°C, and the surface of the photosensitive layer has a roughness in the range of 0.1 μm or more and 2 μm or less in the depth direction, and 2 μm or more and 20 μm or less in the parallel direction of one surface, and This problem can be solved by a method of roughening the surface of the photosensitive layer, in which the uneven peaks on the surface of the layer are made into a rough surface with a rounded shape.

[Effect]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the surface shape of a photosensitive layer obtained by the surface roughening method according to the present invention. Immediately after polishing, the photosensitive layer 2 formed on the conductive substrate 1 exhibits a sharply uneven surface shape as shown in FIG. 1(a). Next, ^5
Heat treatment (annealing) at a temperature of 200°C ± 10°C near the glass transition temperature of 2Se3 increases the fluidity of the photosensitive layer forming material, causing the uneven peaks formed on the surface of the photosensitive layer to collapse. The shape becomes rounded as shown in Fig. 1, etc.). As a result, the surface of the photosensitive layer is less likely to be scratched by contact with transfer paper, cleaning blades, etc., and even after long-term use, the surface shape of the photosensitive layer remains largely different from that shown in Figure 1 (b), as shown in Figure 1 (C). Therefore, it will remain stable. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a photoreceptor that can produce good and stable images even after long-term use.

〔Example〕

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of the surface roughening method of the present invention.

An aluminum alloy (JIS A3003) cylinder with an outer diameter of 100 mm that has undergone the required machining and pretreatment is used as a conductive substrate, and ^s, Se, and the like are vacuum-deposited on the outer surface to form a photosensitive layer. Body 3 was produced.

As shown in No. 31!1(a), this photoreceptor 3 is rotated around the cylindrical axis in the direction indicated by the arrow, and a grinding wheel 4 (TF2000) is pressed against the surface of the photoreceptor layer, and vibration is applied while rotating the photoreceptor 3 in the direction indicated by the arrow B. surface roughness by moving in the direction of RmaxQ
, Super finish processing to 5μff1-1.0μm.

The photoreceptor 3 whose photoreceptor layer surface has been roughened in this way is
As shown in Figure (b), it is placed in a heating furnace 5 and heat-treated in the atmosphere at a temperature of 200° C. for 90 minutes.

As a result of this heat treatment, the surface roughness on the conductive substrate 1 is reduced to 0.0 in the depth direction, as shown in the schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 3(C).
1μlT1~0.5μm, 5μm~1 in the direction parallel to the surface
A photoreceptor is obtained which has a photosensitive layer 2 having a surface shape of 0 μm and rounded ridges.

The thus obtained photoreceptor provided stable images even after long-term use, and no image defects such as white streaks occurred.

As a result of conducting numerous experiments using the above-mentioned method, it was found that a stable photosensitive layer surface shape was obtained when the surface roughness of the photosensitive layer was within the range of 0.1 μm to 2.0 μm in the depth direction and 2 μm to 20 μm in the direction parallel to the surface. A photoreceptor of 100% is obtained. For this purpose, it has been found that it is desirable to perform the heat treatment within a temperature range of 200°C±10°C.

When polishing the surface of the photosensitive layer before the above-mentioned heat treatment, in addition to a grindstone (lt 1000 to 13000), an abrasive cloth or abrasive paper (Emily Baber, Sandpaper, etc.) can also be used.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to this invention, after roughening the surface of a photosensitive layer formed on a conductive substrate and made of an amorphous selenium-arsenic alloy having a composition close to the stoichiometric composition (^52Se, , ) by polishing, Heat treatment is performed at a temperature of ±10°C, and the surface of the photosensitive layer has a roughness in the range of 0.1 μm or more and 2 μm or less in the depth direction, and 2 μm or more and 20 μm or less in the parallel direction of one surface, and The surface has a rough surface with rounded ridges.

A photoreceptor with a photosensitive layer whose surface has been roughened by such a method does not suffer from abrasion of the surface of the photosensitive layer due to contact with transfer paper, cleaning blades, etc., and the surface shape does not change even after long-term use. Changes are small and stable, making it possible to stably obtain good images free of defects such as white streaks and linear scratches.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the surface shape of a photosensitive layer obtained by the roughening method according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of the surface shape of the photosensitive layer obtained by the conventional surface roughening method. , FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of an embodiment of the surface roughening method of the present invention. 1 Conductive substrate, 2 Photosensitive layer, 3 Photoreceptor, 4 (a) (b) (C) Figure No. ? Figure (cy) (b) Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) After roughening the surface of the photosensitive layer made of an amorphous selenium-arsenic alloy with a composition close to the stoichiometric composition (As_2Se_3) by polishing, heat treatment is performed at a temperature of 200°C ± 10°C to roughen the surface of the photosensitive layer. within the range of 0.1 μm or more and 2 μm or less in the depth direction, and 2 μm or more and 20 μm or more in the direction parallel to the surface.
A method for roughening the surface of a photosensitive layer of an electrophotographic photoreceptor, characterized in that the roughness is within the range of μm or less, and the surface of the photosensitive layer is roughened in shape.