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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II (claims 55-59) in the reply filed on 4/2/2026 is acknowledged.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species 2 (a cationic polymer and the adhesive additive of cationic polyvinyl alcohol), Species F (hydrogen peroxide), Species c (a cationic group provided by quaternary ammonium) and Species i (cationic polyvinyl alcohol) in the reply filed on 4/2/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 47-54 and 60-66 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 4/2/2026.
Claim 47 and 60-66 have been canceled.
Claims 48-54 now depend on elected invention of claims 55-59.
New claims 67-76 depend on elected invention of claims 55-59.
Claims 73 and 76 are withdrawn as being drawn to non-elected Species without traverse.
Claims 48-59, 67-72 and 74-75 are examined in this office action.
Claim Objections
Claim 75 objected to because of the following informalities:
-Line 4: “poly DADMAC” should be spelled out as “poly diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (polyDADMAC)”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 51, 53-59, 67-68, 72 and 74-75 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2021/0162353 A1 to Zheng et al. (hereinafter “Zheng”).
Regarding claim 55, Zheng teaches a method of making a filter for filtering a fluid, the method comprising:
making a composition containing graphene oxide sheets by (see paragraph [0085]):
adding a modifying agent e.g. NaNO3, KMnO4 and H2SO4 to a graphene oxide feed suspension containing graphene oxide sheets to form the composition; and
modifying the composition under elevated temperature conditions (see paragraph [0085]: “at 500 C for 15 hours”) so that the modifying agent reacts with the graphene oxide sheets to create imperfections in the graphene oxide sheets, wherein progress of the reaction is stopped by reducing the temperature of the composition (see paragraph [0085]: “resulting paste like mixtures was poured into 400 g of ice”) so the composition stabilizes and can be applied to a substrate to form a filter having a graphene oxide membrane;
applying an adhesive additive to a porous substrate (see paragraph [0056]: “the porous support can be optionally pre-treated to aid in the adhesion of the composite layer to the porous support”);
applying the composition to the porous substrate to form a filter having the membrane containing graphene oxide wherein the adhesive additive facilitates bonding of the composition to the substrate (see paragraph [0087]: “The coating solution was applied on the freshly cleaned stretched polypropylene substrate”).
Regarding claim 51, Zheng discloses hydrogen peroxide as modifying agent (see paragraph [0085]).
Regarding claim 53, Zheng discloses that any of the surplus modifying agent from the composition after the cooling step (see paragraph [0085]: “resulting paste like mixtures was poured into 400 g of ice followed by adding 30 mL of hydrogen peroxide”).
Regarding claim 54, Zheng discloses adding a crosslinking additive to the composition before applying the composition to the porous substrate, the crosslinking additive being a cationic group provided by quaternary ammonium (see paragraph [0087]: “A solution was made with a ratio of 1.24 ml of 0.1% graphene oxide (GO) solution , 4.96 ml of 2.5% PEBAX 1657 solution/0.496 ml of 2.5% poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMA) solution” which is a crosslinker as disclosed in paragraphs [0007], [0025], [0041]).
Regarding claim 56, Zheng discloses poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMA) solution” as a crosslinker additive as disclosed in paragraphs [0007], [0025] and [0041]. A PDAMA crosslinker additive is adhesive additive including a quaternary ammonium group.
Regarding claim 57, Zheng discloses applying a crosslinking additive to the graphene oxide membrane after the graphene oxide membrane has been applied to the substrate (see paragraph [0055]: “(c) repeating step (b) as necessary to achieve the desired thickness of coating” wherein step (b) is applying the coating mixture containing crosslinker on a porous support to form a coated support.)
Regarding claim 58, Zheng discloses a crosslinker additive including poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMA) solution” as disclosed in paragraphs [0007], [0025] and [0041]. PDADMA is a cationic polymer having at least one quaternary ammonium group.
Regarding claim 59, Zheng discloses activating the crosslinking additive to complete crosslinking between the graphene oxide sheets wherein activating the crosslinking additive includes heating the substrate and the membrane on the substrate above 50° C. for at least 1 hour (see paragraph [0060]: “curing the coated support can then be done at temperatures and times sufficient to facilitate crosslinking between the moieties of the aqueous mixture deposited on the porous support.. the coated support can be heated at a temperature of about 60-70° C..for duration of up to about 3 hours”).
Regarding claim 67, Zheng discloses a filter made by the method according to claim 55 as disclosed above.
Regarding claim 68, Zheng discloses that the elevated temperature is from 50° C. to 98° C. (see paragraph [0085]: “at 500 C for 15 hours”).
Regarding claim 72, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMA) solution” as a crosslinker additive as disclosed in paragraphs [0007], [0025] and [0041]. PDADMA is a cationic polymer having at least one quaternary ammonium group. A PDADMA crosslinker additive is adhesive additive.
Regarding claim 74-75, Zheng discloses a crosslinker additive including poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMA) solution” as disclosed in paragraphs [0007], [0025] and [0041].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 48-50, 52 and 69-71 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng as applied to claim 55 above, and further in view of Tian et al., Carbon 155 (2019) 562-569 (hereinafter “Tian”).
Zheng discloses the method of making a filter of claim 55 as described above.
Claim 48 differs from Zheng in reciting that the modifying step includes mixing the composition at the elevated temperature is in the range of from 50° C. to about 200° C and the modifying step is carried out for a period from 0.5 hr to 7 hr.
Tian discloses making graphene oxide (GO) aqueous dispersions (2 mg/ml) by oxidation of natural graphite powder according to the modified Hummers' method wherein 25 ml of 30% H2O2 aqueous solution was mixed with 250 ml of GO aqueous dispersions with continuous heating at 100 °C for 4 h while stirred (see section 2.1 in page 563).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to substitute the method of making GO composition in the method of Zheng for known method (modified Hummers’ method) of Tian for making GO composition as an alternative method.
Regarding claim 49, Zheng teaches that progress of the reaction is stopped by reducing the temperature of the composition (see paragraph [0085]: “resulting paste like mixtures was poured into 400 g of ice”).
Claims 49-50 and 69-70 differ from Zheng in reciting the step of measuring the viscosity of the composition to determine when to stop the progress of the reaction (claim 49), the modifying step is carried out for at least 1 to 5 hours after a maximum in the viscosity of the composition has occurred before the cooling step (claim 50) and the cooling step is carried out when the viscosity of the composition reaches a maximum, or has started reducing from a maximum viscosity (claim 69) and the modifying step is carried out for at least 2 to 4 hours after a maximum in the viscosity of the composition has occurred before the cooling step (claim 70).
Tian teaches the rheological properties, and specifically the viscosity of the GO suspension varies during processing and is highly important for further use of the resulting holey graphene oxide (hGO) ink (see section 3 in page 564). It is also common knowledge in the field that the viscosity of GO suspensions varies a lot and can quickly shift to gelling point. Using this property during the preparation of h-GO to optimize the process would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to produce GO suspension with desired rheological property.
Claims 52 and 71 differ from Zheng in reciting that the modifying agent is hydrogen peroxide solution which is added to the graphene oxide feed suspension at a mass ratio of modifying agent to the graphene oxide mass in the feed suspension in a range of less than or equal to 15 to 1 (claim 52) or in a range of less than or equal to 8 to 1 (claim 71).
Tian discloses making graphene oxide (GO) aqueous dispersions (2 mg/ml) by oxidation of natural graphite powder according to the modified Hummers' method wherein 25 ml of 30% H2O2 aqueous solution was mixed with 250 ml of GO aqueous dispersions with continuous heating at 100 °C for 4 h while stirred (see section 2.1 in page 563).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add hydrogen peroxide solution to the graphene oxide feed suspension at a mass ratio of hydrogen peroxide to the graphene oxide mass in the feed suspension in a range of less than or equal to 15 to 1 or in a range of less than or equal to 8 to 1 as desired in known modified Hummer’s method, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
Conclusion
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/John Kim/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1777
JK
5/22/26
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