DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1, 2, and 4-16 are pending. Claim 3 has been canceled.
The foreign priority application No.10-2021-0124468 filed on September 17, 2021 in the Republic of Korea has been received and it is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claims 9, 10, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The limitation “a binder” in claim 9, line 6 and claim 15, line 6 should be amended to read “the binder”.
Claim 10 is objected to as being dependent on the objected claim 9.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 2, and 4-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 2 recite the limitation "the electrode" in line 11 of each claim.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claims.
Therefore, it is not clear what is the joint inventor claiming as the invention in claims 1 and 2 of the instant application.
Claims 4-16 are rejected as being dependent on the rejected claims 1 and 2.
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.
Claims 1, 2, and 4-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2021/0036286) in view of Takiyama (JP2004-354699 A, with attached machine translation) or Zhou et al. (CN 112670662A, with machine translation made of record on October 30, 2025).
With regard to claims 1 and 2, Lee et al. teach a separator including:
-a porous polymer substrate; and
-a porous coating layer formed on at least one surface of the porous polymer substrate and including core-shell particles and a binder polymer (abstract, par.0014-0017).
The core-shell particle comprises a core portion including a metal hydroxide and a shell portion including a polymer resin (abstract).
The porous polymer substrate of Lee et al. is equivalent to the “separator substrate having a porous structure” in claims 1 and 2.
The porous coating layer of Lee et al. is equivalent to the “coating layer on at least one surfaced of the separator substrate, wherein the coating layer comprises surface-modified inorganic material and a binder, the surface-modified inorganic material comprises particles having a core-shell structure” in claims 1 and 2.
The core-shell particles of Lee et al. meet the limitations of claim 1 for “the inorganic particle constituting a core” and “the polymer at the surface of the inorganic particle”.
Lee et al. teach that the binder fixes the particles and contributes to preventing degradation of mechanical properties of the separator having the coating layer (par.0112). Therefore, the binder of Lee et al. is “a binder configured to maintain bonding between the surface modified-inorganic materials and to increase the force of adhesion between the electrode and the separator” in claims 1 and 2 of the instant application.
Lee et al. fail to teach that the inorganic particle constituting the core and the polymer at the surface of the inorganic particle are bonded to each other via a coupling agent, as in claim 1.
Lee et al. also fail to teach that the polymer is bonded to a surface of the inorganic particle, and the core-shell structure is formed by a functional group present on the surface of the inorganic particle being bonded to the polymer, as in claim 2.
Takiyama teaches core-shell particles, wherein the core is made of inorganic particles and the shell is made of polymers (par.0070). Takiyama further teaches that the surface of the inorganic particles is preferably subjected to surface treatment in order to improve the affinity with the polymer, and the surface treatment may be a chemical surface treatment using a silane coupling agent (par.0064).
Takiyama further teaches that the polymer is bonded to the surface treatment agent of the inorganic fine particle to form a polymer shell around the fine particle as a core (par.0063).
Zhou et al. a method of coating ceramic particles with a polymer (par.0026), wherein ceramic particles are dispersed in an organic solvent and a coupling agent is added to form a first dispersion (par.0007). A first polymer and a second polymers are mixed in a solvent to form a second dispersion, and reacting the first dispersion with the second dispersion to obtain core-shell particles, wherein the ceramic particles are the core, the polymer is the shell and the silane coupling agent makes the bonding between the core and the shell stronger(par.0007, par.0029, par.0036).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to perform a surface treatment using silane coupling agent for the metal hydroxide particle of Lee et al. and then bond the polymer to the functional group of the silane coupling agent to form the polymer shell, in order to improve the affinity/bonding of the metal hydroxide particle with the polymer shell.
Therefore, the separator of Lee modified by Takiyama or Zhou is equivalent to the separators in claims 1 and 2 of the instant application.
With regard to claims 4 and 12, Lee et al. teach that the core portion of the core-shell particles include a metal hydroxide (abstract), such as aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide (par.0062-0064).
Aluminum hydroxide is the claimed Al(OH)3, and magnesium hydroxide is the claimed Mg(OH)2.
With regard to claim 5, Takiyama teaches that the silane coupling agent may be g-aminopropyltrimetoxysilane, g-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, g-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane, g-mercapropropyltriethoxysilane (par.0064).
g-aminopropyltrimetoxysilane and g-aminopropyltriethoxysilane are “amino silanes”, and g-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane and g-mercapropropyltriethoxysilane are “mercapto silanes”.
With regard to claim 6, Takiyama teaches that the silane coupling agents are used as chemical surface treatment of the inorganic fine particles (par.0064).
Takiyama further teaches that the polymer is bonded to the surface treatment agent of the inorganic fine particle to form a polymer shell around the fine particle as a core (par.0063).
This meets the limitations for “the coupling agent is present on the surface of the inorganic particle, and the coupling agent reacts with a functional group of the polymer to form a bond”.
With regard to claims 7 and 13, Lee et al. teach that the polymer may be a crosslinked polymer (abstract), and the crosslinked polymer may comprise a carboxyl group or a hydroxyl group (par.0074).
With regard to claims 8 and 14, Lee et al. does not specify a moisture content of the core-shell particles. Therefore, it is the examiner’s position that the moisture content is zero.
With regard to claims 9 and 15, Lee et al. teach a process comprising the steps of:
-preparing the core-shell particles (par.0150-0151);
-mixing the core-shell particles with a binder to obtain a slurry (par.0153); and
-applying the slurry on both surfaces of a porous substrate to form a porous coating layer (par.0154),
With regard to claim 10, Takiyama teaches that the silane coupling agents are used as chemical surface treatment of the inorganic fine particles (par.0064). This implies the step of “reacting the inorganic particles with a coupling agent” in claim 10.
Takiyama further teaches that the polymer is bonded to the surface treatment agent of the inorganic fine particle to form a polymer shell around the fine particle as a core (par.0063). This implies the steps of “adding the polymer to the coupling agent and reacting the polymer and the coupling agent with each other to bond the polymer to the surface of the inorganic particle” in claim 10.
With regard to claims 11 and 16, Lee et al. teach a lithium secondary battery including the separator (par.0144-0145). The lithium secondary battery includes a pouch casing (par.0161).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 2, and 4-16 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.
The examiner would like to note that:
-the rejection of claims 1-8 and 11 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yu et al. (US 2015/0086714) is withdrawn after the applicant’s amendment to claims 1 and 2;
-the rejection of claims 1, 3, 4, and 7-11 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhou et al. (CN 112670662A, with machine translation made of record on October 30, 2025) is withdrawn after the applicant’s amendment to claim 1; and
-the rejection of claims 9 and 10 under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2015/0086714) in view of Minami et al. (US 2009/0136848) is withdrawn after the applicant’s amendment to claim 1.
However, new grounds of rejection for claims 1, 2, and 4-16 are shown in paragraphs 5-8 above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds 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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/ANCA EOFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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