Carrier for two-component developer, two-component developer, image forming method, and image forming apparatus

1. A carrier for a two-component developer, comprising:

magnetic particles and a resin coating layer that is coated on the magnetic particles,

the resin coating layer containing metal nitride particles having a volume average primary particle diameter of from 1,100 nm to 2,000 nm.

2. The carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , wherein the resin coating layer contains a homopolymer or a copolymer of a cyclohexyl methacrylate.

3. The carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , wherein the metal nitride particles are non-black particles.

4. The carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , wherein an amount of the metal nitride particles is from about 0.1% by weight to about 30% by weight based on a total amount of the resin coating layer.

5. The carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , wherein the metal nitride particles are selected from nitrides of Groups 4 to 6 metals.

6. The carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , wherein the metal nitride particles are selected from titanium nitride and zirconium nitride.

7. A two-component developer comprising the carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , and a toner for developing an electrostatic image.

8. The two-component developer according to claim 7 , wherein the carrier for a two-component developer contains non-black particles as the metal nitride particles.

9. The two-component developer according to claim 7 , wherein the toner for developing an electrostatic image has a volume average particle size distribution index GSDv expressed by the following expression (1) of about 1.21 or less:

GSDv =(( D 84v )/( D 16v )) 0.5   (1)

wherein D 84v and D 16v represent the particle diameters where an accumulation from a small particle diameter side of a volume accumulated diameter distribution drawn for divided channels is 84% and 16%, respectively.

10. The two-component developer according to claim 7 , wherein the carrier for a two-component developer contains metal nitride particles selected from titanium nitride and zirconium nitride as the metal nitride particles.

11. The two-component developer according to claim 7 , wherein the carrier for a two-component developer has an amount of the metal nitride particles of from about 0.1% by weight to about 30% by weight based on a total amount of the resin coating layer.

12. An image forming method comprising:

charging an image holding member;

exposing a surface of the image holding member, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image;

developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the image holding member, with a developer for developing an electrostatic image, thereby forming a toner image;

transferring the toner image formed on the surface of the image holding member, to a surface of a transfer material; and

fixing the toner image,

wherein the developer for developing an electrostatic image is the two-component developer according to claim 7 .

13. The image forming method according to claim 12 , wherein the carrier for a two-component developer contains non-black particles as the metal nitride particles.

14. The image forming method according to claim 12 , wherein the toner for developing an electrostatic image has a volume average particle size distribution index GSDv expressed by the following expression (1) of about 1.21 or less:

GSDv =(( D 84v )/( D 16v )) 0.5   (1)

wherein D 84v and D 16v represent the particle diameters where an accumulation from a small particle diameter side of a volume accumulated diameter distribution drawn for divided channels is 84% and 16%, respectively.

15. The image forming method according to claim 12 , wherein the carrier for a two-component developer contains metal nitride particles selected from titanium nitride and zirconium nitride as the metal nitride particles.

16. The carrier for a two-component developer according to claim 1 , wherein the carrier further comprises carbon black particles.