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 § 102 The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale , or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim s 1, 4-9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhou et al. (hereinafter “Zhou”) (CN 109535264 A; see English machine translation). Regarding claim s 1, 4, 5 and 9 , Zhou teaches a method of preparing CMCLi , the method including the following preparation steps (see paragraph 12): Step 1: Dissolving cellulose in an ionic liquid (solvent) and then adding lithium hydroxide and mixing thoroughly to obtain a first mixture (alkalization of cellulose and lithium hydroxide) (see paragraph 13); Step 2: Adding an acetylation reagent to the first mixture and reacting therewith (etherification) . After the reaction is complete, performing post-treatment to obtain CMCLi (see paragraph 14). The ionic liquid utilized in Step 1 may be an imidazole-based ionic liquid such as 1-methylimidazolium chloride (see paragraph 17). This imidazole may reasonable be considered an amine derivative as claimed because it may be prepared with ammonia. T he acetylation reagent utilized in Step 2 may be selected from chloroacetic acid or bromoacetic acid (halogenated acetic acid) (see paragraph 19) . Regarding claim 6 , Zhou teaches that 5-6 parts of microcrystalline cellulose may be dissolved in 50-500 parts of ionic liquid (see paragraph 23). Regarding claim 7 , Zhou teaches that 5-6 parts of microcrystalline cellulose may be utilized together with 1-15 parts of acetylation reagent (see paragraphs 23 and 24). Regarding claim 8 , Zhou teaches that t he final CMCLi has a controllable structure, uniform substituent distribution, and can produce products with high degree of substitution. The cellulose branched chain has high degree of substitution, high flexibility, and high purity (see paragraph 32) . Although Zhou does not explicitly teach a degree of substitution of about 0.5 or more and about 1.5 or less, one of ordinary skill in the art would expect the CMCLi of Zhou to exhibit a degree of substation within the claimed range because the CMCLi of Zhou is produced by a method that is substantially identical to that of claim 1. It has been held by the courts that w here the claimed and prior art products are identical or substantially identical in structure or composition, or are produced by identical or substantially identical processes, a prima facie case of either anticipation or obviousness has been established. See In re Best , 562 F.2d 1252, 1255, 195 USPQ 430, 433 (CCPA 1977) (see MPEP § 2112.01). Regarding claim 11 , Zhou teaches that the CMCLi may be utilized as a binder for a negative electrode slurry of a lithium-ion battery (see paragraphs 4, 6 and 30). It is well known in the art that lithium batteries further comprise a positive electrode and an electrolyte. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2, 3 and 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. 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