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 .
This is the initial office action for US Patent Application No. 18/338379 by Zhang et al.
Claims 1-16 are currently pending and have been fully considered.
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 1-16 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.
Claim 1 (Lines 6-8) recites the limitation “mixing a material A selected from platinum (II) bis(acetylacetonate), vanadium (III) acetylacetonate, and titanium oxide acetylacetonate with a solvent B selected from oleylamine and 1-octadecene to form a first mixture” and then further recites (Line 15) “recovering a 4H/fcc Pt-based heterostructure with Au”.
In claim 1, in the step of mixing material A, it appears the limitation of selecting from the group of “platinum (II) bis(acetylacetonate), vanadium (III) acetylacetonate, and titanium oxide acetylacetonate” does not necessarily require platinum (II) bis(acetylacetonate) being included as one of the mixing materials. However, the step of “recovering a 4H/fcc Pt-based heterostructure with Au” means that a platinum containing reactant would be required to form the Pt-based nanoisland deposited on an Au nanorod as required by claim 1. Therefore, claim 1 is considered to be indefinite because based on the current claim construction, it appears that the platinum (II) bis(acetylacetonate) reactant may not be included in the step of forming mixing material A, which would conflict with the final step of recovering the 4H/fcc Pt-based heterostructure with Au.
Dependent claims 2-16 are concurrently rejected because they depend from rejected claim 1.
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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fan et al., "Synthesis of 4H/fcc Noble Multimetallic Nanoribbons for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction," Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2016, Vol. 138 (4), pp. 1414-1419, herein referred to as Fan, provided in Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement filed 12/10/2023, in view of Wang et al. “Crystal phase-controlled growth of PtCu and PtCo alloys on 4H Au nanoribbons for electrocatalytic ethanol oxidation reaction”, Nano Research, 2020, Vol. 13(7), pp. 1970-1975, herein referred to as Wang.
Regarding claim 1, Fan teaches (page 1414, Introduction and page 1415, Experimental Section) synthesizing a heterogeneous catalyst material comprising 4H/face-centered cubic (fcc) Au nanoribbons (analogous to nanorods) with coatings of materials such as Pt to form an Au core-PT shell bimetallic nanomaterial.
Fan does not appear to explicitly teach the specified synthesis claimed by Applicant in claim 1. It is noted that claim 1 is claiming a heterogeneous catalyst composition and not its method of manufacturing. In view of MPEP Chapter 2113 Section I, "Even though product-by-process claims are limited by and defined by the process, determination of patentability is based on the product itself. The patentability of a product does not depend on its method of production. If the product in the product-by-process claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even though the prior product was made by a different process." In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 698, 227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
In view of claim 1, Wang teaches (Abstract) the formation of a heterogeneous nanomaterial comprising Au nanoribbon (nanorod) cores with 4H/face-centered cubic (fcc) configurations and a Pt containing alloy is grown on the surface of the aforementioned cores. Wang proceeds to teach (page 1971, Experimental methods, Chemicals and Section 2.4 Preparation of 4H-Au(fcc)-PtCu core-shell nanoribbons (NRBs)) mixing platinum (II) acetylacetonate with oleylamine, adding a dispersion of 4H-Au NRBs, and heating the mixture up to 200 degrees Celsius for 8 hours to form the heterogeneous nanomaterial. Although Wang does not explicitly teach the claimed ratios of A, B and C recited in claim 1, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, based on the combined teachings of Fan and Wang, to modify the chemical reactants to form the desired heterogeneous nanomaterial.
As indicated above with regard to the Fan reference, claim 1 is claiming a heterogeneous catalyst composition and not its method of manufacturing. In view of MPEP Chapter 2113 Section I, "Even though product-by-process claims are limited by and defined by the process, determination of patentability is based on the product itself. The patentability of a product does not depend on its method of production. If the product in the product-by-process claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even though the prior product was made by a different process." In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 698, 227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
In view of claim 2, the combination of Fan and Wang teaches (Fan, page 1417) the Pt-based shell (nanoisland) is configured to have a thickness of 4.5 nm, which falls within the claimed thickness range of 4.2 to 5.2 nm.
In view of claims 3-9 and 11, although the combination of Fan and Wang does not appear to explicitly teach the use of a vanadium or titanium containing reactant, such materials are known to one of ordinary skill in the art and would be suitable alternatives to the materials disclosed by Fan and Wang.
In view of claim 10, the combination of Fan and Wang teaches (Fan, page 1415, Experimental Section) an ultrasonication process is employed to mix the chosen reactants.
In view of claims 12-16, the combination of Fan and Wang teach (Fan, Abstract page 1414 and Wang, Introduction, Results and Discussion, pages 1970 and 1972 respectively) forming the Pt-based material on the Au nanoribbon (nanorod) core by epitaxial growth.
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/STEWART A FRASER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1724