DETAILED ACTION
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
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 19-30 and 32 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention II, drawn to an electrode in the reply filed on 8-8-2025 is acknowledged.
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, 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.
Claim(s) 19, 21-30, 32 and 37-39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thackeray et al. (US 6,528,208) in view of He (CN 112290008, machine translation). Thackeray et al. teaches a negative electrode containing two or more elements selected from the metal elements and silicon having a hexagonally-close packed NiAs-type structure or a defect-Ni2In-type structure capable of accommodating lithium within its crystallographic posts structure such that when lithiated transforms to a cubic-close-packed structure, wherein the cubic-closed-pack structure comprises Li2CuSn, Li2MgSi [teaching claims 21-22, 24, 30 and 37, when X=Mg and/or Y=Si]. Thackeray et al. teaches that carbon is present in a composite matrix. Thackeray et al. teaches in column 12, lines 44-57, for example, Figure 25 which shows the typical charge/discharge profiles for cycles, 4 to 7 of a Li/Cu6-xZnxSn5 cell cycle between 1.2 and 0.2 V. Thackeray et al. teaches in column 6, lines 36-50 and Table 2, that the cubic unit cell [claim 25] space group is F-43m [claim 26] as shown in Figure 8a. Since Thackeray et al. teaches the same anode material comprising a compound comprising Li2MgSi, then inherently the anode material has a discharge potential between 0 to about 0.4 V or between 0 to about 0.1 V vs Li/Li +; the compound having a bandgap (Eg) of less than about 1.2 eV and the energy above the convex hull (Ehull) of less than 25 meV/atom must also be obtained.
In addition, the presently claimed property of the anode material having a discharge potential between 0 to about 0.4 V or between 0 to about 0.1 V vs Li/Li +; the compound, Li2MgSi having a bandgap (Eg) of less than about 1.2 eV; the energy above the convex hull (Ehull) of less than 25 meV/atom would have obviously been present once the Thackeray et al. product is provided. See MPEP 2122.01, I.
Since Thackeray et al. teaches the same anode material comprising a compound comprising Li2MgSi, then inherently the compound is susceptible to side decomposition reactions upon discharging and the same anode material having a theoretical capacity of greater than about 372 mA h g.1 must also be obtained. In addition, the presently claimed property of the compound susceptible to side decomposition reactions upon discharging and the anode material having a theoretical capacity of greater than about 372 mA h g.1 would have obviously been present once the Thackeray et al. product is provided. See MPEP 2122.01, I. Thackeray et al. discloses the claimed invention teaching a negative electrode comprising an anode material comprising Li2MgSi and comprising one additional material teaches that the one additional material is carbon instead of Si or SiC. He teaches a negative electrode material is an important component of the lithium-ion battery, which is not embedded Li +, but can contain a large amount of Li + from the anode material of the battery. Therefore, the negative electrode material may comprise the following types: (1) carbon material such as natural modified graphite, artificial graphite and so on; (2) titanium-based material, such as Li4Ti5O12 and so on; (3) silicon-based material, such as silicon-carbon composite material and so on; (7) other novel negative electrode material, such as Li2MgSi, etc. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a silicon-based material such as Si, Si-C or SiOx instead of carbon as the at least one additional material because He teaches that these materials can be used in the anode as explained above and one would expect therefore that these materials would function in a similar way and give similar results.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 20 and 40-43 are allowed.
The claims are allowable because the anode material Li2-X-Y is coated with a layer of carbon and comprises one or more additional materials selected from the group consisting of carbon, Si, Si-C and SiOx1. 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.
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/LAURA S. WEINER/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1723
/Laura Weiner/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1723