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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) were submitted on 08/02/2023 and 05/23/2023. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3-5 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR101439176 to Ho et al.
With respect to claim 1, Ho et al. teach a method for manufacturing a protonic ceramic fuel cell, the method comprising:
a first step of manufacturing a fuel electrode substrate layer (an anode support slurry), an anode functional layer (an anode reaction layer slurry), and an electrolyte slurry;
a second step of performing tape-casting of the respective slurries manufactured in the first step and manufacturing an anode support tape, an anode reaction layer tape, and an electrolyte tape;
a third step of forming a lamination structure by sequentially laminating the anode support tape, the anode reaction layer tape, and the electrolyte tape manufactured in the second step;
a fourth step of co-firing (sintering) the lamination structure formed in the third step through multiple steps of heat treatments at respective temperatures different from each other;
a fifth step of forming air electrode (a cathode) at a surface of the lamination structure sintered in the fourth step at which the electrolyte tape is positioned; and
a sixth step of co-sintering the lamination structure having the air electrode (the cathode) formed in the fifth step (Ho et al.: Page 3; Line 1 to Page 5 Lines 13; Claims 1-10).
Ho et al. do not specifically teach the two steps of heat treatments.
However, it would have been obvious as of the effective filing dated of the claimed invention to make to the multiple steps of the heat treatments could be combined into two main steps, for example, first step is below 1000°C and the second step is above 1000°C.
With respect to claim 3, Ho et al. teach the method, wherein the fuel electrode substrate layer (the anode support slurry) contains a complex of a BZCY (a BaCeO3—BaZrO3 solid mixture) and NiO (Ho et al.: Page 3; Line 1 to Page 5 Lines 13; Claims 1-10).
With respect to claim 4, Ho et al. teach the method, wherein the anode functional layer (the anode reaction layer slurry) contains a complex of a BZCY (a BaCeO3—BaZrO3 solid mixture) and NiO (Ho et al.: Page 3; Line 1 to Page 5 Lines 13; Claims 1-10).
With respect to claim 5, Ho et al. teach the method, wherein the electrolyte slurry contains a BZCY (a BaCeO3—BaZrO3 solid mixture) (Ho et al.: Page 3; Line 1 to Page 5 Lines 13; Claims 1-10).
With respect to claim 12, Ho et al. teach the method, further comprising: between the third step and the fourth step, a step of curing the lamination structure manufactured in the third step at room temperature and forming a shape of the lamination structure (Ho et al.: Page 3; Line 1 to Page 5 Lines 13; Claims 1-10).
With respect to claim 13, Ho et al. teach a protonic ceramic fuel cell manufactured in accordance with the method for manufacturing the protonic ceramic fuel cell (Ho et al.: Page 3; Line 1 to Page 5 Lines 13; Claims 1-10).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR101439176 to Ho et al. in view of KR20190005083A to Lee et al.
With respect to claim 2, Ho et al. do not specifically teach the method, wherein the first step is performed using resonant acoustic mixing.
However, Hani et al. teach a method of manufacturing slurry for solid oxide fuel cell comprising a step of resonance acoustic mixing a slurry of solid oxide fuel cell (Lee et al.: Abstract).
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing dated of the claimed invention to have modified Ho et al. with the teaching above from Lee et al. with the motivation of having a means such the method can lower the surface roughness by uniform mixing and improve the quality of the battery.
Claims 6 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR101439176 to Ho et al. in view of US Patent Application Publication 2020/0119367 to IIJIMA et al.
With respect to claim 6, Ho et al. teach the method, wherein the third step is performed by sequentially laminating the anode support tape, the anode reaction layer tape, and the electrolyte tape, and pressing the sequentially laminated tapes of the anode support tape, the anode reaction layer tape, and the electrolyte tape.
Ho et al. do not specifically teach at a temperature of 100° C. to 140° C.
However, IIJIMA et al. teach a method of preparing a membrane electrode assembly comprising a step of inserting an electrolyte membrane between an anode catalyst layer and a cathode catalyst layer, then laminating them at 120° C under a pressure of 100 kg/cm−1 for 10 min (IIJIMA et al.: Section [0152]).
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing dated of the claimed invention to have modified Ho et al. with the above teaching from IIJIMA et al. with the motivation of having a means such it is a common process of lamination for a MEA of a fuel cell.
With respect to claim 11, Ho et al. do not specifically teach the method, further comprising: between the second step and the third step, a step of cutting each of the anode support tape, the anode reaction layer tape, and the electrolyte tape manufactured in the second step.
However, IIJIMA et al. teach a method of preparing a membrane electrode assembly comprising a step of cutting the anode catalyst layer and cathode catalyst layer in a specific size (IIJIMA et al.: Section [0152]).
It would have been obvious as of the effective filing dated of the claimed invention to have modified Ho et al. with the above teaching from IIJIMA et al. with the motivation of having a means such the step of cutting the anode support tape, the anode reaction layer tape, and the electrolyte tape is known in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LINGWEN R ZENG whose telephone number is (571)272-6649. The examiner can normally be reached 8am-5pm.
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/LINGWEN R ZENG/Examiner, Art Unit 1723 1/16/2026