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 .
This Office Action supersedes the Office Action mailed 4/2/2026.
Election/Restrictions
The Examiner notes that the limitations of claim 7 are directed to Embodiment 3, see Specification [0048]. Claim 7 is thereby withdrawn. Claims 3-5, 7-38 are withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions.
Full consideration was given to claims 1, 2, 6.
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I, Species I in the reply filed on 1/30/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that Group II would not provide the Examiner with any substantially more burden than search and/or exam of Group I because the Examiner is likely to search in the same classification with substantially the same queries. This is not found persuasive because this application is a 371 national stage application, and hence is governed by the concept of “the unity of invention” requirement. A search burden requirement does not exist for 371 national stage applications.
The requirement is still deemed proper.
Priority
Acknowledgement has been made of applicant’s claim for priority under 35 USC 119 (a-d). The certified copy has been filed on 4/28/2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed 7/17/2025, 3/5/2025, 2/25/2025, 5/10/2024, 3/6/2024, 6/27/2023 has been placed in the application file and the information referred to therein has been considered.
Drawings
The drawings received 4/28/2023 are acceptable for examination purposes.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Zhu (A Highly Thermostable Ceramic-Grafter Microporous Polyethylene Separator for Safer Lithium-Ion Batteries, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2015, 7, 24119-24126).
Regarding claim 1, a separator for a nonaqueous secondary battery, comprising silicon (Si)-containing molecules, wherein in a Si-containing image detected by a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) measurement of the separator for a nonaqueous secondary battery, a Voronoi area (mu) at maximum frequency of Voronoi polygons obtained by carrying out Voronoi tessellation is within a range of 1.0 µm² to 17.5 µm², and
a spread (σ) of a Voronoi area frequency distribution of the Si-containing image detected by the TOF-SIMS measurement is within a range of 0.5 µm² to 8.5 µm², the instant Specification states:
[0029] When the Voronoi area (mu) at maximum frequency of Voronoi polygons obtained by carrying out Voronoi tessellation is within a range of 1.0 μm.sup.2 to 17.5 μm.sup.2, the Si-containing molecules tend to be dispersed in a state of not being a sea-island structure in the separator. For example, when the nonaqueous secondary battery is a lithium ion secondary battery, if the separator containing Si elements dispersed uniformly therein coexist with a lithium (Li) complex solvated with an electrolytic solution having unshared electron pair such as oxygen atoms, it is considered that the product life in a battery cycle characteristic test is prolonged by the following phenomena (i) and (ii).
(i) The Li complex exhibits high affinity with Si atoms and therefore exists in the vicinity of Si atoms with high probability. For such a phenomenon, a reaction in which non-fed electron pairs in the molecular structure of the electrolytic solution are coordinated to Si atoms is important. As mentioned in NPL1, since the Si atom has a large atomic radius, it is possible to have tetra or higher-coordination, and to have special properties in which a structure using 4-electron-3-center bonds and d-orbitals can exist. That is, it is possible to form a path in which Li ions can easily flow uniformly over the entire surface of the separator. Therefore, for example, a secondary battery including a positive electrode such as an NMC positive electrode containing lithium (Li)-nickel (Ni)-manganese (Mn)-cobalt (Co) composite oxide is uniformly charged and discharged, thereby suppressing crystal breakage.
(ii) For example, when the negative electrode is a Si-containing negative electrode, charging/discharging of the Si elements in the negative electrode can be uniformly carried out, and uniform expansion convergence of the Si-containing negative electrode enables suppression of deformation inside the secondary battery.
[0030] While not wishing to be bound by any theory, it is considered that the above phenomena (i) and (ii) occur when a complex is homogeneously formed and thus Li+ ions of the separator uniformly flow in a nonaqueous secondary battery,… (emphasis added)
Further, the instant Specification states:
[0034] From the viewpoint of achieving both longer life of the cycle characteristics and the safety of the nonaqueous secondary battery and/or balancing them, the Voronoi area (mu) at maximum frequency of Voronoi polygons obtained by carrying out Voronoi tessellation is preferably within a range of 1.5 μm2 to 17.0 μm2, more preferably 4.0 μm2 to 16.0 μm2, and still more preferably 6.0 μm2 to 13.0 μm2. From the same point of view, the spread (σ) of the Voronoi area frequency distribution of the Si-containing image detected by the TOF-SIMS measurement is preferably within a range of 0.5 μm2 to 8.5 μm2, more preferably 1.7 μm2 to 6.3 μm2, and still more preferably 1.8 μm2 to 4.2 μm2. (emphasis added)
Zhu discloses a polyethylene separator grafted with SiO2. The separator contains a three-dimensional network structure with uniform distribution of SiO2 nanoparticles on the surface of the polyethylene. See Abstract and page 24123. It appears that the uniform distribution of SiO2 grafted onto the polyethylene separator of Zhu meets the limitations of claim 1.
MPEP 2112 V states that "once a reference teaching product appearing to be substantially identical is made the basis of a rejection, and the Examiner presents evidence or reasoning tending to show inherency, the burden shifts to the Applicant to show an unobvious difference."
Regarding claim 2, a ratio (σ/mu) of the spread (σ) of the Voronoi area frequency distribution to the Voronoi area (mu) at maximum frequency is 0.06 to 0.70, the instant Specification states:
[0037] Regarding a Si-containing image detected by the TOF-SIMS measurement, the ratio (σ/mu) of the spread (σ) of the Voronoi area frequency distribution to the Voronoi area (mu) at maximum frequency preferably satisfies the following relationship.
0.06≤σ/mu≤0.7
In the first embodiment, the ratio (σ/mu) in Voronoi tessellation can be regarded as an indicator that indicates whether or not the Si-containing molecules are uniformly dispersed on the separator surface. When the ratio (σ/mu) is within a range of 0.06 to 0.70, the Si-containing molecules are uniformly dispersed on the separator surface and sufficiently contribute to the coexistence of the Li complex derived from the electrolytic solution and the separator and the silane crosslinking reaction of the separator in the nonaqueous secondary battery, and thus the cycle product life of the battery can be prolonged. While not wishing to be bound by any theory, it was experimentally discovered in PTL 1 that the concentration at which an intermediate in which the Li complex is coordinated in the plane of the separator is present, or the life of the intermediate in an equilibrium state is important, and the ratio (σ/mu) in Voronoi tessellation can uniformly contribute to the intercalation reaction to electrodes. From the viewpoint of further prolonging the cycle product life of the battery, the ratio (σ/mu) is preferably within a range of 0.07 to 0.57, and more preferably 0.19 to 0.38.
It appears that the uniform distribution of SiO2 grafted onto the polyethylene separator of Zhu meets the limitations of claim 2.
MPEP 2112 V states that "once a reference teaching product appearing to be substantially identical is made the basis of a rejection, and the Examiner presents evidence or reasoning tending to show inherency, the burden shifts to the Applicant to show an unobvious difference."
Regarding claim 6, Zhu ‘s separator meets the limitation “the Si-containing molecules are dispersed in a state of not being a sea-island structure in the separator for a nonaqueous secondary battery”, see instant Specification [0029].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CYNTHIA KYUNG SOO WALLS whose telephone number is (571)272-8699. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F until 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jonathan Leong can be reached at 571-270-1292. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CYNTHIA K WALLS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1751
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