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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I: Claims 1-6 in the reply filed on July 09, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 7-11 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to nonelected Groups II and III, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (CN107706351A) and further in view of Lee et al. (EP 3605678 A1).
Claim 1 and 4: Pan teaches a lithium-ion battery (i.e., lithium secondary battery) comprising a positive plate (i.e., a positive electrode) having an active layer on the current collector wherein the active layer contains a positive active material such as LiMn2O4 or LiFePO4 (Page 3 para 6), and a lithium compensating component (i.e., lithium-containing compound) represented by the formula Li6Co1-xMnxO4 where 0≤ x ≤ 0.3 (Page 3 para 9-10). As such, Pan teaches lithium-containing compounds such as Li6Mn0.3Co0.7O4. Pan teaches the lithium compensating component has an irreversible capacity and can supplement the consumption of active lithium by the SEI film, thus improving the mass ratio capacity of the electrode (Page 3 para 9-10).
Pan does not teach a negative electrode without negative electrode active material. However, Lee teaches a lithium secondary battery comprising a cathode mixture that includes an active material such as LiMn2O4 or LiFePO4 [0014], and an irreversible compensating additive [0011-0012], and a battery anode is without an anode active material, wherein a lithium metal layer may be formed on the anode current collector after the first few charges and discharges [0010]. Lee teaches assembling the battery without active material improves processability and economic efficiency. Since the lithium secondary battery does not contain a lithium metal secondary battery, no extra stringent conditions normally required for assembling a lithium containing battery are necessary thus manufacturing is more efficient and the cost of production is greatly reduced [0024].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the instant invention to have modified Pan’s battery by using an anode without active material because it would have been more efficient and economical.
Claim 2: Pan teaches the test conditions of the electrochemical performance of the button half-cell of the provided examples can include a voltage window of 3-4.3 V vs Li (i.e., the cut-off voltage for initial charging is 4.3 V) (Page 9 para 3).
Claim 3: Pan teaches the total content of the positive active material and the lithium supplemented component is 90 wt %-99 wt % (Page 3 para 12), and the content of the lithium supplement component is 1 wt % to 20 wt % of the total mass of the positive electrode active material (Page 4 para 1). Thus, the lithium supplement component is 0.9% - 20% of the positive electrode mass.
Claim 5: Pan teaches the lithium-ion battery comprises of a negative electrode (Page 2 para 6). Pan does not teach the negative electrode comprises a current collector. However, Lee teaches the current collector can be made of a metal such as copper or stainless steel, that is electrically conductive and does not cause chemical changes in the battery [0025]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have made Pan’s negative electrode current collector with copper because it is electrically conductive and doesn’t cause chemical changes in the battery.
Claim 6: Pan teaches a lithium-ion battery with good cycle performance and high energy density (Page 5 para 9). Pan does not explicitly teach the energy density of the lithium-ion battery. However, Lee teaches a lithium secondary battery with high energy density. Lee teaches in order to increase energy density of the electrode, a very thin layer of lithium is required and this can be most efficiently and economically achieved by forming the lithium metal layer the anode-less current collector at the initial charge and discharge steps as described above [0006, 0010]. Lee further teaches that when the lithium layer is provided at assembly time the energy density is lower than when it is formed after the first charging and discharging cycle [0076]. Lee does not specifically teach the energy density of at least 350 Wh/kg, however, Lee teaches energy density of up to 1023 Wh/L [Table 2].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hasegawa et al. (US 2015/0372304 Al) teaches a nonaqueous secondary battery (i.e., lithium secondary battery) with high capacity and good loading properties comprising a positive electrode having a positive electrode active material and a positive electrode additive (i.e., lithium-containing compound) represented by the formula LixMyO4 where M could be Mn or Co or a combination of the two and x= 4 to 7 and y = 0.5 to 1.5 [0023]. As such, Hasegawa teaches compounds such as Li6Mn0.3Co0.7O4. Hasegawa teaches the lithium-containing compound improves the load properties of the battery by generating gas during initial charging which enhances the porosity or the active material layer and in-turn the penetration and distribution of the electrolyte [0022].
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/L.N.R./Examiner, Art Unit 1712
/MICHAEL B CLEVELAND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1712
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