DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Li et al. (ACS Appl. Energy Mater. 2021, 4, 8488−8495).
Regarding claim 1, Li discloses boron-doped and carbon-controlled porous Si/C anode for high-performance lithium-ion batteries (title). Primary particles are agglomerated into to form secondary particles (Fig. 1a and 3g). The outer most layer is amorphous carbon (p. 8491, right col.).
Regarding claim 2, Li discloses the atomic contents of B is 6.15%, (p. 8490, left col.). This amount of boron is calculated to be about 4 wt.%.
Regarding claim 3, Li discloses the amorphous carbon is a coating layer (Fig. 1a); therefore, the amorphous carbon is between the boron-doped silicon primary particles.
Regarding claim 4, Li discloses a pore volume between 0.001-0.01 cm3/g (Fig. S3 insert).
Regarding claims 5-8, Li discloses boron (Title). The same doped boron can be viewed as a “boron material” and cannot be distinguished in the claims as recited.
Regarding claim 9, Li discloses amorphous carbon (p. 8491, right col.), which will be either soft or hard carbon based on the method of making (p. 8489: Experimental Section).
Regarding claim 10, Li discloses primary particles diameters of between about 10-500 nm (Figure S6).
Regarding claim 11, Li discloses secondary particle size of about 9.86 µm (p. 8491, left col.).
Regarding claim 12, Li discloses a thickness between about 1 nm to 2 µm (Fig. S7).
Regarding claim 13, Li discloses a lithium-ion battery (Introduction) and electrochemical measurements with a counter electrode and electrolyte (p. 8489, right col.).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Xiao et al. (Materials Science and Engineering B 296 (2023) 116676) teaches boron-doped porous Si/C composite.
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/CARLOS BARCENA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1723
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