Claims
- 1. An electrophotographic toner produced by a process comprising:
- polymerizing a monomer-phase mixture while suspended in the form of drops in a dispersion medium, wherein said monomer-phase mixture contains:
- (i) a polymerizable monomer serving as a raw material of a fixing resin of said toner and
- (ii) fine particles selected from the group consisting of fine particles of a crosslinking resin having a primary particle size of 1% to 30% of a particle size of said toner, and water insoluble inorganic fine particles which have said primary particle size and which have been treated to increase their affinity with said monomer,
- wherein a mixing ratio of said fine particles to said monomer is in a range of 0.1% to 100% by weight,
- said monomer being insoluble in said dispersion medium,
- wherein said fine particles are dispersed in said monomer phase mixture and move to the surface of said monomer phase drops but do not move further into said dispersion medium,
- wherein said toner is provided on a surface thereof with numerous projections made of said fine particles securely formed, when polymerized, on said toner, and
- wherein said projections are integral with said toner.
- 2. The electrophotographic toner according to claim 1, wherein the fine particles of the crosslinking resin are produced by a dispersion polymerization method including the steps of: dissolving a multifunctional monomer in a medium n which said monomer is soluble but a polymer thereof is insoluble, to thereby form a solution; and polymerizing the resulting solution under stirring.
- 3. An electrophotographic toner according to claim 1, wherein the treatment for increasing the affinity of the inorganic fine particles with the monomer is a treatment using a coupling agent.
- 4. An electrophotographic toner according to claim 1, wherein the treatment for increasing the affinity of the inorganic fine particles with the monomer is a grafting treatment using a polymerizable monomer identical with or different from said polymerizable monomer serving as the raw material of the fixing resin of the toner.
- 5. The electrophotographic toner according to claim 1, further including a coloring agent which is added in the monomer-phase mixture to color the toner.
- 6. The electrophotographic toner according to claim 1, wherein an average particle size of said toner is in a range from 4 .mu.m to 20 .mu.m, and the particle size distribution is not greater than 1.50.
- 7. An electrophotographic toner produced by the process comprising:
- synthesizing fine particles of a crosslinking resin having a particle size of 1-30% of a toner particle size,
- wherein a continuous phase of divinyl benzene, polymethacrylate, and 2,2'-azobisisobutyonitrile is subject to dispersion polymerization to thereby form said fine particles of said crosslinking resin;
- mixing styrene monomer, 2-ethylhexyl methacrylate, styrene sodium sulfonate, polypropylene having a weight average molecular weight of about 1,000 to about 10,000, divinyl benzene, carbon black, and said fine particles of crosslinking resin wherein a mixing ratio of said fine particles to said monomer is in a range of 0.1% to 100% by weight;
- adding 2,2'-azobis (2,4-dimethyl valeronitrile) to form a monomer-phase mixture for suspension polymerization;
- stirring said monomer-phase mixture with a dispersion stabilizer and water forming a dispersion;
- heating said dispersion to form polymerized particles;
- filtering and washing said polymerized particles, wherein said particles have an average particle size of 10 .mu.m and wherein said toner is provided on a surface thereof with numerous projections made of said fine particles.
- 8. An electrophotographic toner produced by the process comprising:
- dissolving at least a polymerizable monomer serving as a raw material of a fixing resin of the toner in a medium in which said polymerizable monomer is soluble but a polymer thereof is insoluble, to thereby form a solution;
- polymerizing the resulting solution under stirring to thereby produce substantially spherical toner particles;
- aggregating said toner particles with inorganic matter intervening thereamong to form an aggregate, wherein said toner particles are deformed in the aggregating step; and
- chemically dissolving and removing said inorganic matter to decompose the resulting aggregate, wherein an average, particle size of said toner particle is in the range from 3 .mu.m to 10 .mu.m and the particle size distribution thereof is not greater than 1.3.
- 9. The electrophotographic toner according to claim 8, further including adding a coloring agent to the medium together with the monomer; to thereby color the toner.
- 10. The electrophotographic toner according to claim 8, further including coloring the toner particles after the polymerizing step.
- 11. The electrophotographic toner produced by the process as defined in claim 1 wherein said process consists essentially of
- polymerizing a monomer-phase mixture while suspended in the form of drops in a dispersion medium,
- wherein said monomer-phase mixture contains: (i) a polymerizable monomer serving as a raw material of a fixing resin of said toner and (ii) fine particles selected from the group consisting of fine particles of a crosslinking resin having a primary particle size of 1% to 30% of a particle size of said toner, and water insoluble inorganic fine particles which have said primary particle size and which have been treated to increase their affinity with said monomer,
- wherein a mixing ratio of said fine particles to said monomer is in a range of 0.1% to 100% by weight, said monomer being insoluble in said dispersion medium, wherein said toner is provided on a surface thereof with numerous projections made of said fine particles.
- 12. The electrophotographic toner produced by the process as defined in claim 8 wherein said process consists essentially of
- dissolving at least a polymerizable monomer serving as a raw material of a fixing resin of the toner in a medium in which said polymerizable monomer is soluble but a polymer thereof is insoluble, to thereby form a solution;
- polymerizing the resulting solution under stirring to thereby produce substantially spherical toner particles;
- aggregating said toner particles with inorganic matter intervening thereamong to form an aggregate, wherein said toner particles are deformed in the aggregating step; and
- chemically dissolving and removing said inorganic matter to decompose the resulting aggregate, wherein an average particle size of said toner particle is in the range from 3 .mu.m to 10 .mu.m and the particle size distribution thereof is not greater than 1.3.
Priority Claims (2)
Number |
Date |
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Kind |
5-262594 |
Oct 1993 |
JPX |
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5-272597 |
Oct 1993 |
JPX |
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Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation application under 37 CFR 1.62 of prior application Ser. No. 08/325,929, filed on Oct. 18, 1994 abandoned entitled ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHIC TONER AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE TONER (AS AMENDED), which application is entirely incorporated herein by reference.
US Referenced Citations (12)
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
Diamond, Arthur S. (1991) Handbook of Imaging Materials. New York: Marcel-Dekker, Inc. p. 178. |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
325929 |
Oct 1994 |
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