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 .
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.
1. Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which applicant regards as the invention.
2. It is unclear in claim 1 what the Applicant means by “method of making alkaline exchange catalytic electrodes”. It is unclear because the claim does not appear to recite an alkaline group.
3. The dependent claims are also unclear based on their dependencies on the independent claim.
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.
4. Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Isomura et al. (US20170174800).
5. Regarding claims 1-19, Isomura a method of making alkaline exchange catalytic electrodes for an electrochemical device (the use of an anion-exchange membrane has been studied because the reaction site is in alkaline-environment [0004]), the method comprising: preparing a catalyst dispersion by mixing at least one type of catalyst nanoparticles and at least one polymer precursor dispersion in a solvent (1 g of the partially quaternized styrene-based copolymer 1 was dissolved in 100 ml chloroform, then 2 g of catalyst (the platinum particle of the particle diameter of 2 to 10 nm being supported on the carbon particle having the primary particle diameter of 30 to 50 nm) was added and dispersed [0193]), the at least one polymer precursor comprising at least two types of monomer units having respective at least two types of functional groups that comprise at least one non-cationic functional group, and at least one anion-conductive functional group (The catalytic electrode layer for the anion-exchange membrane type fuel cell of the present invention comprises the electrode catalyst and the ion-conductive additive comprising the constituent unit comprising the crosslinking structure (herein after, it will be referred as the ion-conductive additive comprising the crosslinking structure) [0085]; The ion-conductive additive comprising the crosslinking structure at least includes the constituent unit comprising the quaternary base type anion-exchange group shown by the below formula (1) and the constituent unit comprising the crosslinking structure shown by below (3) [0086]),
depositing the catalyst dispersion on a functional substrate and evaporating the solvent to form a catalyst layer (The coating method of the catalytic electrode forming composition is not particularly limited, and it may be determined based on the characteristic such as the desired catalytic electrode layer thickness according to the object to be coated. As such method, a spray coating method…may be mentioned [0127-0128]; The catalytic electrode precursor layer of after the coating according to the present invention is dried at appropriate temperature The drying condition is not particularly limited, and it may be determined depending on the amount and the boiling point of the used solvent [0128]; wherein the catalytic electrode precursor layer is formed by coating and drying the catalytic electrode forming composition including the catalyst and the ion-conductive additive according to the second invention to the anion-exchange membrane, a precursor of the anion-exchange membrane, or a gas diffusion layer [0026]), and crosslinking at least one of the non-cationic functional groups and/or the anion-conductive groups to stabilize the catalyst layer (then crosslinking reaction is carried out by polyamine compounds such as diamine [0020]; water content of the ion-conductive additive comprising the crosslinking structure, and the content ratio of the constituent unit comprising the quaternary base type anion-exchange group and the constituent unit comprising the crosslinking structure of the ion-conductive additive comprising the crosslinking structure were evaluated [0193]).
3. Isomura teaches a membrane-electrode assembly comprising two catalytic electrodes separated by an anion-conducting separation layer (catalytic electrode layer for the anion-exchange membrane type fuel cell [0026]) for the benefit of anion-exchange membrane to be used to exhibit high output and to improve the durability even further [0005].
4. 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 Isomura’s for the benefit of anion-exchange membrane to be used to exhibit high output and to improve the durability even further.
Conclusion
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/OLATUNJI A GODO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1752
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