Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is responsive to the amendment filed on 2/2/2026. Claim 14 is canceled. Claims 2-13, 15-24 are pending. Claims 4, 5, 9-12, 15, 22, 23 are withdrawn from further consideration as being drawn to a non-elected invention, in accordance with 37 CFR 1.142(b). Applicant’s arguments have been considered. Claims 2, 3, 6-8, 13, 16-21, 24 are finally rejected for reasons of record stated herein below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 2, 3, 13, 16-18, 20, 21, 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wang (CN 102142554, referred to herein as Wang ‘554) in view of Wang (WO 2012/149672, referred to herein as Wang ‘672).
Regarding claim 2, Wang ‘554 discloses a Li-ion battery comprising:
(i) a cathode comprising a polymer binder and active, Li-storing composite particles or composite aggregates, wherein the composite particles or the composite aggregates comprise cores, each core comprising both sulfur or sulfur-based active material and an electrically conductive carbon scaffold (Abstract), and
(i1) an anode comprising at least one of: lithium (Li), silicon (Si), tin (Sn) or graphitic carbon (C) [0040]; and
(iii) an electrolyte comprising lithium polysulfides (Li2Sn) [0005].
Wang ‘554 discloses a core having polysulfides loaded into “cores” comprising nanocarbon particles. See schematic in [0014].
Regarding claim 13, the composite particles or the composite aggregates comprise metal sulfide, Wang ‘554 discloses the elemental sulfur is an inorganic polysulfide [0014]. Wang ‘554 discloses sulfur is a poor electrical conductor [0005]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to form the inorganic polysulfide with a metal for the benefit of having good electrical conductivity.
Regarding claim 16, the composite particles or the composite aggregates comprise one or more open pores [0019].
Regarding claim 17, a size of the one or more open pores is in a range from about 0.5 nm to about 100 nm, Wang ‘554 discloses the nanoscale network pores “bind” elemental sulfur or polysulfides in the network [0019]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to adjust the pore size of nanoscale pores of Wang ‘554 depending on the size of the sulfur particle so that the sulfur particle would fit into the pores.
Regarding claim 18, the size of the one or more open pores is in a range from about 1 nm to about 10 nm, Wang ‘554 discloses the nanoscale network pores “bind” elemental sulfur or polysulfides in the network [0019]. The composite material is a nanometer carbon-sulfur composite material [0039]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to adjust the pore size of nanoscale pores of Wang ‘554 depending on the size of the sulfur particle so that the sulfur particle would fit into the pores.
Regarding claim 20, the sulfur or the sulfur-based active material comprises Li2S [0005].
Regarding claim 21, the electrolyte comprises a lithium imide salt [0227].
Regarding claim 24, the Li2Sn is dissolved in an electrolyte solvent of the electrolyte [0005].
Regarding claim 2, Wang ‘554 discloses nanocarbon particles with connected polymer chain [0013], wherein the nanocarbon comprises carbon black, activated carbon, graphite, nanocarbon particles, other dispersed carbon particles [0037], but does not disclose wherein the electrically conductive carbon scaffold comprises electrically interconnected segments of graphene or multi-layered graphene or graphene oxide, and wherein each of the cores is at least partially encased in a shell. Wang ‘672 teaches a cathode material for Li-S battery, comprising an acrylonitrile-based polymer that coats sulfur and graphene. See Abstract. Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of graphite, possesses a unique two-dimensional structure and excellent electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Compared with carbon nanotubes, graphene has lower density, better heat conductivity, higher conductivity and larger specific surface. Moreover, graphene prepared by chemical methods are less expensive and easily assessable, therefore, is desirable conductive filler for composite cathode material (page 6, lines 5-15). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to use graphene as Wang’s (‘554) nanocarbon, as taught by Wang ‘672, for the benefit of having excellent electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties.
Wang ‘554 discloses that an intermediate product lithium polysulfide is easily soluble in the organic liquid electrolyte and will cause the loss of part of the active material [0005]. Wang ‘672 teaches the acrylonitrile-based polymer coating plays the role of polymer matrix that envelopes elemental sulfur (page 5, line 10). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to add a polymeric coating of Wang ‘672 to the nanocarbon network composite of Wang ‘554 for the benefit of protecting the sulfur active material.
Regarding claim 3, Wang ‘554 does not disclose the composite particles or composite aggregates exhibit an average diameter in the range from about 0.3 micron to about 20 micron. Wang ‘554 discloses the composite material is a nanometer carbon-sulfur composite material [0039]. It is noted that the nanometer composite particles of Wang ‘554 would be in proximity to the Applicant’s claimed range, and hence would have been obvious, absent criticality.
Claims 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wang (CN 102142554) in view of Wang (WO 2012/149672) as applied to claim 2, further in view of Wang (US 2012/0207994, referred to herein as Wang ‘994).
Wang ‘554 does not disclose the elements of claim 6-8. Wang ‘994 teaches a cathode active material sulfur enclosed in pores and channels of carbon. The negative shuttling effect of sulfur can be reduced by the inclusion of a metal oxide in the composite [0024].
Regarding claim 6, the composite particles or the composite aggregates comprise a metal oxide [0024].
Regarding claim 7, the metal oxide is present at least in the shell [0024]. See Figure 1.
Regarding claim 8, the metal oxide comprises at least one of: manganese oxide, vanadium oxide, nickel oxide, aluminum oxide or a combination thereof [0025].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to add metal oxide of Wang ‘994 to the carbon composite of Wang ‘554 for the benefit of reducing the amount of sulfur dissolved in the electrolyte.
Claims 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wang (CN 102142554) in view of Wang (WO 2012/149672) as applied to claim 2, further in view of Janssen (US 2012/0251889).
Regarding claim 19, Wang ‘554 does not disclose the anode comprises the Si. Wang ‘554 uses lithium alloy as negative electrode active material [0040]. Janssen teaches a lithium-sulfur battery having a suitable anode active material comprising lithium-silicon alloys [0185]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to use lithium-silicon alloy as the negative active material of Wang ‘554, as taught by Janssen, for the benefit of forming a suitable negative electrode for the lithium-sulfur battery of Wang ‘554.
Response to Arguments
Arguments dated 2/2/2026 are addressed:
Wang '554 teaches sulfur or polysulfides loaded into the pores of the polymer network, not into the nanocarbon particles or "cores" comprising nanocarbon particles.
In response, the Examiner notes that Wang ‘554 discloses a core having polysulfides loaded into “cores” comprising nanocarbon particles. See schematic in [0014].
It is noted that Wang ‘672 is relied upon for the coating, and not the “core”.
Hence, the rejection is maintained.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CYNTHIA KYUNG SOO WALLS whose telephone number is (571)272-8699. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F until 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jonathan Leong can be reached at 571-270-1292. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CYNTHIA K WALLS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1751
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