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 .
Response to Arguments
The examiner is withdrawing the rejections in the previous Office Action because
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, This Action Is Made Final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
1. Claims 19-22 and 24-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ghielmi et al. (US20140315121) in view of Kim et al. (US 20100279196) in view of Kishimoto et al. (US 20190305323)
2. Regarding claim 19, Ghielmi teaches a process for preparing a membrane electrode assembly (The process comprising…coating the first catalyst layer with an ionomer dispersion to form an ionomer layer (membrane) (abstract); The cathode layer on the carrier substrate is then passed through a coating machine equipped with a knife-coater. The ionomer dispersion manufactured in step 1) is coated on the free surface of the catalyst layer [0110]; The blade of the knife is set at a distance of 600 μm above the surface of the electrode. The assembly is then passed through an air-recirculation oven where the membrane is dried at 80° C. [0111]) said process comprising the steps of:
i) preparing a dispersion comprising carbon particles and a hydrophobic polymeric binder (Perfluorinated ionomer dispersions are commercialized e.g. under the tradenames Nafion® DE [0039]; These liquid compositions, sometimes referred to as solutions, are generally recognized as being dispersions (i.e. colloidal suspensions) of polymer particles [0039]; PTFE nanoparticles in the form of fibrils [0043]; Hydrocarbon (non-fluorinated) ionomers may also be employed. [0038]; The Examiner notes due to the presence of perfluoroalkyl backbones in Nafion, it has high hydrophobicity properties)
then ii) applying the dispersion directly to a catalyst layer of a catalyst coated ion- conducting membrane to form a microporous layer A comprising the carbon particles and the polymeric binder on the catalyst layer (In step b) of the CCM fabrication the membrane may be prepared by directly casting the ionomer dispersion on top of the catalyst layer (first electrode [0028]) to obtain what is commonly referred to as a “cast membrane” [0029]; The Examiner notes the ionomer dispersion forms a microporous layer);
then b) applying a microporous layer B to the microporous layer A after step ii) (Alternatively, the microporous reinforcement can be embedded into the ionomer dispersion after it is deposited on the first electrode layer by casting [0031]; In a specific embodiment, a first microporous layer comprising carbon black and a hydrophobic binder [0051]).
3. Ghielmi teaches polymer particles but is silent about carbon particles.
4. Kim teaches preparing a dispersion comprising carbon particles and a polymeric binder (In a preferred embodiment, the electrical conductive layer is formed in a slurry by mixing a Nafion solution as a binder and carbon particles (carbon black) in isopropanol alcohol (IPA) and distilled water (DI water) [0025]) for the benefit of improved electrical conductivity, which can reduce electrical contact resistance between a catalyst layer and a micro-porous layer [0003].
5. They are silent about wherein a loading of the carbon particles in the microporous laver A is 0.4 to 1.0 mg/cm3.
6. Kishimoto teaches the amount of the non-platinum catalyst (e.g., carbon catalyst) contained in the catalyst layer of the cathode of the present invention per unit area of an electrode (cathode) may be, for example, 0.5 mg/cm2 or more and 8.0 mg/cm2 or less, and is preferably 1.0 mg/cm2 [0035] for the benefit of forming a catalyst layer of a cathode of a fuel cell [0036] and achieving both an increase in supply efficiency of oxygen and an increase in supply efficiency of protons to the carbon catalyst contained in the catalyst layer [0097]. In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists (MPEP 2144.05).
7. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Ghielmi with Kim’s teachings for the benefit of improved electrical conductivity, which can reduce electrical contact resistance between a catalyst layer and a micro-porous layer, in addition to using Kishimoto’s teachings of achieving both an increase in supply efficiency of oxygen and an increase in supply efficiency of protons to the carbon catalyst contained in the catalyst layer.
8. Regarding claim 20, Kim teaches wherein step ii) is carried out by spraying the dispersion on to the catalyst layer (That is, the electrical conductive layer is formed between the catalyst layer and the MPL by coating the electrical conductive layer in the form of slurry on the MPL using a coating method selected from the group consisting of spray coating [0041]).
9. Regarding claim 21, Kim teaches wherein the catalyst layer is a cathode catalyst layer (an anode and a cathode of the 3-layer MEA, i.e., the catalyst layers of the 3-layer MEA [0053]).
10. Regarding claim 22, Kim teaches microporous layer A composition (which comprises Teflon resin is mainly used as the binder [0016]) will be different from the composition of microporous layer B (In a preferred embodiment, the electrical conductive layer is formed in a slurry by mixing a Nafion solution as a binder and carbon particles (carbon black)). Kim teaches wherein the polymeric binder is a hydrophobic polymer (Teflon resin is mainly used as the binder and it can smoothly exhaust water due to its hydrophobic characteristics [0016]).
11. Regarding claim 24, Kim teaches wherein the hydrophobic polymer is a fluoropolymer (Teflon is a brand name for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)).
12. Regarding claim 25, Okuyama teaches wherein the dispersion also comprises a non-polymeric fluorinated compound (The hydrocarbon electrolytes applicable herein include: sulfonated polyether sulfon (S-PES) [0114]).
13. Regarding claim 26, Kim teaches wherein the dispersion also comprises a diluent (isopropanol alcohol (IPA) and distilled water (DI water) [0025]).
14. Regarding claim 27, Kim teaches wherein the microporous layer A contains no more than 5 mg/cm2 of carbon particles (The thus-obtained slurry was coated at 0.3 mg carbon/cm2 on the micro-porous layer (MPL) [0050]).
15. Regarding claim 28, Kim teaches wherein in step b), the microporous layer B is applied as a combination with a gas diffusion substrate (forming a micro-porous layer on a surface of a gas diffusion layer to be in contact with the catalyst layer [0024]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OLATUNJI GODO whose telephone number is (571)272-3104. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 am - 5:30 pm.
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/OLATUNJI A GODO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1752