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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 6-9, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sokolikova (Sokolikova, Direct solution-phase synthesis of 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets, Nature Communications, 2019, pg. 1-8) in view of Qiao (Qiao, Solution-phase synthesis of transition metal oxide nanocrystals: Morphologies, formulae, and mechanisms, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 244, 2017, pg. 199-266).
Regarding Claim 1, Sokolikova teaches a method of forming a 1T′-phase transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer comprising: mixing a transition metal precursor and a first solvent to form a first mixture; mixing a non-oxygen chalcogen or non-oxygen chalcogen precursor and a second solvent to form a second mixture; injecting the first mixture into the second mixture at a temperature of 300C to form a third mixture; recovering 1T′-transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers from the third mixture (Synthesis of the 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets).
Sokolikova teaches swift injection but is silent as to the injection time and does not explicitly teach wherein the first mixture is injected into the second mixture in such a way that the first mixture is completely enveloped by the second mixture within a period of time of 1-3 seconds; therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to look to related art to determine a suitable injection time. Qiao teaches details of the nucleation process depend on the injection process wherein results are sensitive to injection speed (2.2.1.2 2a.ii. Hot injection). It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to optimize the injection speed of Sokolikova, as suggested by Qiao, in order to achieve the desired nucleation process and nuclei size distribution, and in such an optimization one of ordinary skill in the art would have arrived at applicant’s claimed injection speed.
Regarding Claim 4, Sokolikova teaches a transition metal of the transition metal precursor is tungsten (Synthesis of the 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets).
Regarding Claim 6, Sokolikova teaches selenium (Synthesis of the 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets).
Regarding Claim 7, Sokolikova teaches WSe2 (Synthesis of the 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets).
Regarding Claims 8-9, Sokolikova teaches wherein the 1T′-transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers are formed on a metal substrate (Synthesis of the 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets).
Regarding Claim 13, Sokolikova teaches recovering is performed by centrifugation (Synthesis of the 1T’ WSe2 nanosheets).
Claim(s) 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (Liu, Synthesis of MoX2 (x= Se or S) monolayers with high-concentration 1T’ phase on 4H/fcc-Au nanorods for hydrogen evolution, Nano Research, 2019, 12(6), pg. 1301-1305) ) in view of Qiao (Qiao, Solution-phase synthesis of transition metal oxide nanocrystals: Morphologies, formulae, and mechanisms, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 244, 2017, pg. 199-266).
Regarding Claim 1, Liu teaches a method of forming a 1T′-phase transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer (abstract) comprising: mixing a transition metal precursor, a non-oxygen chalcogen precursor, and a solvent to form a mixture; injecting the mixture into a nanorod mixture at a temperature of 300C to form a third mixture; and recovering 1T′-transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers from the third mixture (2.2).
Liu does not explicitly teach separate injection of the transition metal precursor and the non-oxygen chalcogen precursors in solutions as claimed; however, Selection of any order of mixing ingredients is prima facie obvious. MPEP 2144.04 IV C. It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the method of Liu to include any order of mixing the ingredients because selection of any order of mixing ingredients is prima facie obvious.
Liu teaches quick injection but is silent as to the injection time and does not explicitly teach wherein the first mixture is injected into the second mixture in such a way that the first mixture is completely enveloped by the second mixture within a period of time of 1-3 seconds; therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to look to related art to determine a suitable injection time. Qiao teaches details of the nucleation process depend on the injection process wherein results are sensitive to injection speed (2.2.1.2 2a.ii. Hot injection). It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to optimize the injection speed of Liu, as suggested by Qiao, in order to achieve the desired nucleation process and nuclei size distribution, and in such an optimization one of ordinary skill in the art would have arrived at applicant’s claimed injection speed.
Regarding Claims 2-3, Liu teaches the solution is oleyl amine (2.2).
Regarding Claims 4-5, Liu teaches molybdenum chloride (2.2).
Regarding Claim 6, Liu teaches selenium (2.2).
Regarding Claim 7, Liu teaches MoSe2 (2.2).
Regarding Claims 8-12, Liu teaches a 4H gold nanorod substrate (2.2).
Regarding Claim 13, Liu teaches the recovering is performed by centrifugation (2.2).
Claim(s) 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (Liu, Synthesis of MoX2 (x= Se or S) monolayers with high-concentration 1T’ phase on 4H/fcc-Au nanorods for hydrogen evolution, Nano Research, 2019, 12(6), pg. 1301-1305) ) in view of Qiao (Qiao, Solution-phase synthesis of transition metal oxide nanocrystals: Morphologies, formulae, and mechanisms, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 244, 2017, pg. 199-266) as applied to claims 1-13 above, and further in view of Chen (Chen, Ag@MoS2 Core-Shell Heterostructure as SERS Platform to Reveal the Hydrogen Evolution Active Sites of Single-Layer MoS2, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142, pg. 7161-7167) and Wang (Wang, Investigation of Au nanoparticles assembled on periodic wrinkled PDMS as a flexible SERS substrate, Mater. Res. Express, 2019, 6, 085009, pg. 1-7).
Regarding Claim 14, Liu does not explicitly teach depositing the monolayers on a polymer substrate having a hard transparent coating formed thereon to create a substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS); however, Chen teaches Ag@MoS2 core-shell heterostructures for hydrogen evolution as a SERS Platform (abstract). It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the method of Liu to include further use of the structures in SERS applications, as suggested by Chen, because Chen teaches it is a desirable use for Ag@MoS2 heterostructures for hydrogen evolution and one of ordinary skill in the art would have had a reasonable expectation of predictably using the product of Liu with a SERS substrate as suggested in Chen.
The combined references do not explicitly teach the structures deposited on a polymer substrate having a hard transparent coating formed thereon; however, Wang teaches PDMS with a top hard thin layer as a desirable SERS substrate (2.1). It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the SERS application of the combined references to include a substrate, as taught in Wang, because it is a known SERS substrate in the art and one of ordinary skill in the art would have had a reasonable expectation of predictably achieving the SERS platform of the combined references with a substrate as in Wang.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see amendment, filed 11/5/2025, with respect to the previous Section 112 and prior art rejections have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made as discussed above.
Applicant's other arguments filed 11/5/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues the rapid enveloping of the first mixture by the second mixture creates a transient, localized supersaturation environment that facilitates the directed nucleation and growth of highly pure and stable 1T'-phase one- dimensional 4H-Au nanowires. Applicant argues the 1-3 second time window is critical because it maintains a metastable concentration gradient and minimizes secondary nucleation events, which would otherwise lead to mixed phases or polycrystalline structures. In response to applicant’s argument, Sokolikova teaches swift injection and Liu teaches quick injection. While both references are silent as to the injection time, they teach the claimed 1T’ phase, which applicant attributes to a 1-3 second time window. Furthermore, optimization of the injection time is suggested by Qiao as discussed above.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/TABATHA L PENNY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1712