DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
1. Claims 10-11 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to nonelected inventions, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 8/21/26.
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-9 in the reply filed on 8/21/26 is acknowledged.
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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claim 3 is 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.
Specifically, it is noted that claim 3 includes the limitation “the surface modification” in line 1 of the claim. However, as set forth in independent claim 1, the claim initially refers to “surface modifications” (see claim 1 at line 6). As such, the subsequent reference to “the surface modification” is unclear since it is unknown if the limitation is actually referring to all of the previously set forth surface modifications or if all that is being further referred to is a single surface modification.
Please note, for purposes of claim interpretation the examiner will be treating claim 3 as further limiting all of the previously set forth surface modifications since this would appear to be most in keeping with applicants intent.
It is suggested that applicant amend the claim to refer to “the surface modifications” in claim 3 as one way of removing the above grounds of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 and 3-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN114481284A to Ma et al., (hereinafter referred to as “MA”).
Regarding claim 1, MA teaches a water electrolyzer (see generally MA at Abstract; see also MA at ¶7 under “Summary of the Invention” teaching the nickel electrode being prepared and used for water electrolysis and ¶16 discussing the use of the prepared nickel electrode as either the anode and/or cathode used in an alkaline electrolysis cell), comprising:
an anode (see MA at ¶16 teaching the anode and/or the cathode of the electrolysis production device being the prepared nickel electrode);
a cathode (see MA at ¶16 teaching the anode and/or the cathode of the electrolysis production device being the prepared nickel electrode);
a power supply electrically connected to the anode and the cathode (see MA at ¶16 teaching the prepared nickel electrode used as either the anode and/or cathode with an alkaline electrolyte in an alkaline water electrolysis production device which would necessarily include a power source supply the electrical energy for the electrolysis), wherein at least one of the anode and cathode consists of an acid etched porous substrate, said acid etched porous substrate being devoid of any surface modifications (see MA at ¶31 teaching the nickel substrate being treated including a porous structure; see also MA at ¶6-¶13 teaching the method of preparing the nickel electrode including an etching process in an acid to increase the surface roughness of the nickel without any additional surface modifications being applied);
wherein the acid etched porous substrate is obtained by acid etching by soaking a porous substrate in an acid for a duration ranging between 0.1 hr to 2 hr under sonication at a temperature ranging between 20 °C to 80 °C (see MA at ¶6-¶15 teaching an etching processing which would result in a substrate having an increased surface roughness which is the same structural aspects or features that would result from the claimed processing conditions).
Regarding claim 3, MA teaches the electrolyzer wherein the surface modifications comprises organic nanostructures and/or inorganic nanostructures (see rejection of claim 1 as to the process of MA including the etching process without any additional coating or treatment of the prepared surface to provide additional surface modifications as claimed).
Regarding claims 4-5, MA teaches the electrolyzer wherein the porous substrate is selected from the group as claimed, the group including nickel foam (see MA at ¶31 teaching the nickel matrix being a porous body which could be termed a foam).
Regarding claim 6-8, MA teaches the electrolyzer wherein the acid in the acid etching is a mineral acid, the mineral acid including sulfuric acid (see MA at ¶9 teaching the etching process including the use of various acids including sulfuric acid).
Regarding claim 9, MA teaches the electrolyzer wherein the electrolyzer is a single cell electrolyzer (see MA at ¶16 teaching the alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production device comprising an anode and/or cathode made by the etching process with an electrolyte which since a single anode and cathode or mentioned would include a single cell as claimed).
Claim(s) 1 and 3-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN107868959A to Zhang et al., (hereinafter referred to as “ZHANG”).
Regarding claim 1, ZHANG teaches a water electrolyzer (see generally ZHANG at Abstract; see also ZHANG at ¶17 teaching the prepared electrodes for use in water electrolysis and providing for more sites for hydrogen and oxygen evolution), comprising:
an anode (see ZHANG at ¶33 discussing the use of the prepared etched nickel foam electrode to generate hydrogen, i.e. as a cathode, which would necessarily include in the water electrolyte solution also an anode);
a cathode (see ZHANG at ¶33 discussing the use of the prepared etched nickel foam electrode to generate hydrogen, i.e. as a cathode);
a power supply electrically connected to the anode and the cathode (see ZHANG at ¶33 discussing the use of the prepared etched nickel foam electrode to generate hydrogen which would implicitly also include a source of electrical power for the electrolysis), wherein at least one of the anode and cathode consists of an acid etched porous substrate, said acid etched porous substrate being devoid of any surface modifications (see ZHANG at ¶33 discussing the use of the prepared etched nickel foam electrode to generate hydrogen, i.e. as a cathode, which is formed from the process as set forth in ¶7-¶15 and which doesn’t include any further surface modifications as claimed);
wherein the acid etched porous substrate is obtained by acid etching by soaking a porous substrate in an acid for a duration ranging between 0.1 hr to 2 hr under sonication at a temperature ranging between 20 °C to 80 °C (see ZHANG at ¶7-¶15 teaching the etching process and which results in nickel foam electrode having increased surface area which is the same structural aspects or features that would result from the claimed processing conditions).
Regarding claim 3, ZHANG teaches the electrolyzer wherein the surface modifications comprises organic nanostructures and/or inorganic nanostructures (see rejection of claim 1 as to the process of ZHANG including the etching process without any additional coating or treatment of the prepared surface to provide additional surface modifications as claimed).
Regarding claims 4-5, ZHANG teaches the electrolyzer wherein the porous substrate is selected from the group as claimed, the group including nickel foam (see ZHANG at ¶2 and ¶8 teaching the electrode being a nickel foam electrode with an increased active area).
Regarding claim 6-8, ZHANG teaches the electrolyzer wherein the acid in the acid etching is a mineral acid, the mineral acid including hydrochloric acid (see ZHANG at ¶11-¶12 teaching the etching process including the use of a hydrochloric acid etching solution which although it doesn’t explicitly teach sulfuric acid would result in an etched surface having the same surface area increased surface as would result from the process limitations as claimed).
Regarding claim 9, ZHANG teaches the electrolyzer wherein the electrolyzer is a single cell electrolyzer (see ZHANG at ¶33 teaching the use of the etched nickel foam electrode for hydrogen generation which would be understood to be coupled with an anode in an electrolysis cell so as to provide data for the hydrogen evolution performance and which would constitute a single cell, i.e. a single anode and cathode, electrolyzer).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bryan D. Ripa whose telephone number is (571)270-7875. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00AM-4:00PM ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James Lin can be reached at (571) 272-8902. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRYAN D. RIPA/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1794
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