Patent ID: 8012591

Claim:
A hydrophilic member comprising: a substrate; a hydrophilic film formed by heating and drying a hydrophilic composition; and an undercoat layer comprising a nonvolatile catalyst between the substrate and the hydrophilic film, wherein the hydrophilic composition comprises: (A) a hydrophilic polymer represented by the following general formula (I); (B) an alkoxide compound of an element selected from Si, Ti, Zr and Al; and (C) a catalyst that promotes the reaction of (A) the hydrophilic polymer and (B) the alkoxide compound: wherein R 1 to R 8 each independently represents a hydrogen atom or a hydrocarbon group having 8 or less carbon atoms, L 2 represents a single bond, or a polyvalent organic linking group having at least one structure selected from the group consisting of —CONH—, —NHCONH—, —OCONH—, —SO,NH— and —SO 3 —, m represents an integer of from 1 to 3, x and y represent a polymerization ratio by mol of the repeating units of the formula (I) and the polymerization molar ratio x/y is within a range of from 99/1 to 10/90, and wherein (a) L 1 represents a polyvalent organic linking group comprising from 1 to 200 carbon atoms, provided that at least one —CH 2 — group is present, and X represents —OH, or (b) L 1 represents a single bond or a polyvalent organic linking group, and X represents —CON(R s )(R b ), —NHCOR d , —NHCO 2 R a , —OCON(R a )(R b ), —NHCON(R a )(R b ), —SO 3 R e , —OSO 3 R e , —SO 2 R d , —NHSO 2 R d , —SO 2 N(R a )(R b ), —PO 3 H 2 , —OPO 3 H 2 or —PO 3 (R d )(R e ), wherein R a and R b each independently represents a hydrogen atom or a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms, R d represents a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms, and R e represents a hydrogen atom, or a linear, branched or cyclic alkyl group having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms, or an alkali metal, an alkaline earth metal, or an onium, wherein said hydrophilic film has a surface free energy of 79-85 mN/m.