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 .
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 6-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 2021/0242495) in view of Kreuer et al. (US 6,264,857).
Kim teaches a solid electrolyte used in secondary batteries. At least one portion of the solid electrolyte 10 including an inorganic lithium ion conductor including lithium ions wherein a portion of the lithium ions are substituted by a proton. The first porous layer 13 has a first inorganic lithium ion conductor substituted with about 2% to about 100%, or about 5% to about 95%, or about 25 % to about 75% of protons ([0068], FIG. 1); this portion of the solid electrolyte reads on the claimed proton conductor. Kim further teaches the porous layer 14 is a product obtained by acid treating an inorganic lithium conductive film [0069]. Kim discloses examples for the inorganic lithium ion conductive film of the solid electrolyte includes LISICON which reads on the claimed formula in claims 6 and 7 [0073].
Kim is silent to disclosing treating LISICON with a non-aqueous solvent required by claim 6 and 9, is silent to the claimed acid composition required by claim 8, and is silent to electric conductivity of claim 10.
However, Kreuer et al. relates to electrolyte membranes used in electrochemical cells and secondary batteries (abstract) which is the same field of endeavor of Kim. Kreuer et al. teaches to treat membranes in a non-aqueous organic solution containing acid; such as, sulfonic acids, e.g. p-toluenesulfonic acid, methylsulfonic acid (col. 2, lines 65+) (claim 8). Col. 4, lines 30-32 discloses the non-aqueous solvent may be toluene, dimethyl sulfoxide, dimethylformamide (claim 9). This treatment results in conductivities of ≥ 10-3 S/cm over a very wide temperate range up to +400°C (claim 10) (col. 4, lines 52-60). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to treat the inorganic lithium ion conductor (LISICON) of Kim with the claimed acid in a non-aqueous solvent required by claims 6, 8-9 to obtain the electric conductivity of claim 10, and the claimed substitution percentage and ratio of claims 11-12 because Kim teaches a solid electrolyte having a portion of lithium ion substituted by protons by acid treatment with percentages that fully encompasses the claimed range and Kreuer et al. teaches an electrolyte membrane of an electrochemical cell/secondary batteries that is obtained by immersing the membrane in acid and solvent as claimed to result in high proton productivity, high electric conductivity over a very wide temperature range (col. 1, lines 5-10 and col. 4, lines 30-60) and using known substances (i.e. acid in solvent) in the same field of endeavor (i.e. electrolyte membranes) yield predictable results (i.e. lithium ion substituted with protons and high electric conductivity in wide temperatures).
Conclusion
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/KENDRA LY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1749
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