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 .
Detailed Action
Restriction/Election
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I, claims 1-11 and 14 in the reply filed on 05/29/26 is acknowledged. Restriction is made final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112, indefiniteness
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
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.
Claims 1-11 and 14 are 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claim 1 recites the limitation “predetermined” which makes the claim indefinite because the meets and bounds of the predetermined level is not defined.
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 1-11 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong et al. (Carbohydrate Polymers 95 (2013) 214-219, presented in IDS) in view of Solala et al. (Cellulose (2020) 27:1853-1877, presented in IDS), Hu et al. ( Carbohydrate Polymers 248 (2020) 116777, presented in IDS) and further Zeng et al. (CN 113059175B).
Xiong et al. discloses that in this study, we report a facile and environmentally friendly strategy for synthesis of well dispersed and stable silver nanostructures using cellulose nanocrystals in aqueous solution without employing any other reductants, capping or dispersing agents. Importantly, it is feasible to adjust the morphology of the silver nanostructures by varying the precursor AgNO₃ concentration. Silver nanospheres were formed when the AgNO₃ concentration was 0.4 mM, while the dendritic nanostructures predominated when the AgNO₃ concentration was increased to 250 mM. The antibacterial activity of the two different silver nanostructures against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was characterized. Dendritic nanostruc- ture showed a better antibacterial activity than that of silver nanosphere. The approach presented in this paper offers a very promising route to noble metal nanoparticles using renewable reducing agents, see abstract.
Xiong et al. teaches that using renewable carbohydrate- or cellulose-based materials for the synthesis of NPs can be advantageous over microorganisms process because it eliminates the elaborate process of maintaining cell cultures and can also be suitably scaled up for large-scale NPs synthesis (Song, Jang, & Kim, 2009). Moreover, NPs produced by carbohydrate- or cellulose-based materials are more stable and the rate of synthesis is faster than that in the case of microorganisms (Iravani, 2011). Cellulose nanocrystals (CNs), which can be isolated from a variety of natural sources such as cotton, tunicate, bacteria and wood pulp, has emerged as a new class of renewable carbohydrate polymers owing to its high stiffness, low density, well-defined size and morphology, controlled surface chemistry, environmental sustainability and anticipated low cost (Lam. Hrapovic, Majid, Chong), see column 2, first and second paragraph.
Xiong does not teach lignin containing cellulose.
Solala et al. discloses that this review outlines the present state and recent progress in the area of lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils (LCNFs), an emerging family of green cellulose nanomaterials. Different types of LCNF raw materials are described, with main focus on wood-based raw materials, and the properties of the resulting LCNFs are compared. Common problems faced in industrial utilization of CNFs are discussed in the light of potential improvements from LCNFs, covering areas such as chemical and energy consumption, dewatering and redispersibility. Out of the potential applications, barrier films, emulsions and nanocomposites are considered, see abstract.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of he claimed invention to have utilized lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils (LCNFs), an emerging family of green cellulose nanomaterials into the silver nanostructures using cellulose nanocrystals in aqueous solution without employing any other reductants of Xiong et al. as taught by Solala et al. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to do so because Solala et al. teaches lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils (LCNFs), are an emerging family of green cellulose nanomaterials.
Hu et al. discloses synthesis of bimetallic silver-gold nanoparticle composites using a cellulose dope: tunable nanostructure and its biological activity, see title. Hu et al. teaches introducing functional metal nanoparticles (NPs) into flexible substrate is being increasingly attempted to expand their application. Here, we extend the synthesis of cellulose to its unmodified dope achieving freestanding nanocomposite decorated with bimetallic Ag-Au NPs through the one pot reaction. In the procedure, cellulose chain not only acts as a reducing agent but also a biocompatible support for NPs with a mean size of 7.9-9.7 nm. Meanwhile, changing the addition order of Ag⁺ and AuCl₄⁻ generated different atom arrangement in the bi- metallic NPs. Moreover, the correlation of bioactivity to NP atom arrangement was studied. The result revealed that the nanocomposite containing NPs with an ultrathin Ag-rich outermost shell around an Au-rich core showed better bactericidal ability while lower cytotoxicity, see abstract.
Zeng et al. discloses a preparation method of gold, silver and silver chloride nanoparticle and application thereof in ammonia colorimetric detection, see title. Zeng et al.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of he claimed invention to have utilized silver-gold nanoparticle composites using a cellulose in the silver comprising lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils of Xiong et al. as modified by Solala et al. and as taught by Hu and Zeng et al. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to do so because Xiong teaches NPs produced by carbohydrate or cellulose-based materials are more stable and the rate of synthesis is faster than that in the case of microorganisms and further teaches stable silver nanostructures using cellulose nanocrystals in aqueous solution without employing any other reductants, and Hu and Zeng et al. teaches sue of silver, gold nanoparticles wherein cellulose acts as reducing agent and Zeng teaches existence of the combination of gold, silver and silver chloride nanoparticle.
Correspondence
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/SNIGDHA MAEWALL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1612
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