Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 8/10/2026 has been entered.
Claims 1, 3, 4, 7-10, 12-20 are pending. Claims 13-20 are withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to a non-elected invention.
The previous rejection of claims 1, 3, 4, 7-10, 12 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, is withdrawn in view of applicant's amendment.
The previous rejection of claims 1, 3, 4, 7-10, and 12 under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ran et al. (CN108383151A) is withdrawn in view of applicant's amendment.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3, 4, 7-10, 12 would be allowable pending resolution of the cancellation of claims 13-20 (non-elected invention).
A telephone call was made to Peter Corless on 9/23/2026 to request cancellation of the claims 13-20 through examiner’s amendment, but the representative could not be reached.
Reasons for Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claims 1, 3, 4, 7-10, 12 are allowable over the prior art and for reasons set forth by applicant in the response filed 8/10/2026.
Ran (CN108383151A) discloses a method for preparing a lead iodide, comprising: adding an iodine compound (potassium iodide) to a first acid solution, in which a lead compound is dissolved (dissolving lead acetate trihydrate in an acetic acid aqueous solution), to form a reaction solution comprising a first lead iodide; and heating the reaction solution to a temperature of about 120°C for 8-16 hours, to obtain a second lead iodide (para 0010). Rand discloses the first acid solution comprises acetic acid with mass fractions are 5%, 10%, 20%, 40% and 80% (examples 2 and 6, para 0020, 0043-0045 and para 0073-0075). Ran does not specifically disclose the first acid solution has pH value of 2 as well as a peak intensity of a (003) crystal plane of the second lead iodide is greater than or equal to a peak intensity of a (110) crystal plane and wherein a peak intensity of the (001) crystal plane of the second lead iodide is greater than or equal to a peak intensity of (101) crystal plane as recited in the pending claims. Without any teaching or suggestion in the prior art, a person skilled in the art could not have reasonably predicted that a shorter reaction time of 1 to 3 hours paired with a higher temperature of 130°C to 160°C would successfully yield the desired PbI₂ crystal form I as presently claimed.
Conclusion
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/HAIDUNG D NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
9/30/2026
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