DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-13 are currently pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 1-9 & 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 2023/0378456 A1).
Regarding claims 1-9 & 13, Kim teaches a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising a cathode active material, wherein the cathode active material can comprise unaggregated one-body particles (i.e agglomerate of 1 primary macro particle) represented by the claimed formula 4 and having an average particle diameter (D50) of 2 microns to 10 microns (fig. 2; [0049]-[0056], [0061], [0065], [0067]-[0069]). While Kim is silent as to the positive electrode active material satisfying equations 1, 2 and 3, it is noted that the single particles of Kim do not show any cracking after pressing at 9 tonnes ([0061], [0069] & [0071]). Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would expect the volume% of particles at point A after pressing at 4.5 tons to be substantially equal to the volume% of particles at point A before pressing since the single particles do not show any cracking at a higher press of 9 tons which would result in the single particle before pressing retaining approximately the same volume after pressing due to the increased strength of Kim’s single particles. Accordingly, a value of Z>90% and Z>85% is rendered obvious over the teachings of Kim. Similarly, the diameter of particles having a maximum occupied volume after pressing would be expected to be substantially the same as the diameter of particles having a maximum occupied volume before pressing since Kim’s single particles show no cracking at 9 tons which renders obvious a value of Y>90% and Y>80% as recited in claim 7 and claim 2 respectively. Furthermore, Kim discloses that, after pressing, fine particles of 1 micron or less are less than 10% of the positive electrode active material when the positive electrode active material is a secondary particle comprising less than 10 macro primary particles ([0086]-[0087]). However, since the single particles formed of 1 macro primary particles do not crack, no peaks would be expected to be observed in the claimed small particle area which renders obvious a W<5% and W<10% as presently claimed in claim 8 and claim 4 respectively.
Claims 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 2023/0378456 A1) in view of Takeuchi (US 2010/0117025 A1).
Regarding claims 10-12, Kim teaches the cathode active material of claim 9 but is silent as to the cathode active material having an average grain size of 200 Angstroms to 400 Angstroms (claim 10); a tap density of 1.8 to 2.0 g/cc (claim 11) and a BET surface area of 0.45 to 0.50 m2/g (claim 12). Takeuchi teaches a cathode active material comprising a single particle having an average grain size (i.e average crystallite diameter) of 0.01 microns to 0.5 microns (i.e 100 Angstroms to 5,000 Angstroms); a tap density of particularly 1.6 to 2.2 g/cc and a BET surface area of particularly 0.50 to 1.5 m2/g ([0032]-[0041], [0052], [0055]-[0059] & [0061]) which overlap with the presently claimed ranges. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the present invention, to use an average grain size within the range disclosed by Takeuchi above because a such a range is suitable along with a cathode active material having an average particle diameter (D50) of 1 micron to 4 microns (which also overlaps with Kim’s range) for obtaining excellent life span properties (also referred to as cycle properties) and output properties (properties evaluated in low temperature capacity verification test 3 in the examples) as taught by Takeuchi ([0044]). Furthermore, it would have been obvious to set a tap density and a BET surface area within the ranges disclosed above, in view of 1) the output properties not decreasing due to the specific surface area being too low, and in addition, the cycle properties not decreasing by depletion of the electrolytic solution due to the specific surface area being too high; and 2) from the viewpoint of the filling properties not decreasing remarkably, and in addition, the fluidity not increasing remarkably as taught by Takeuchi ([0059] & [0061]).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHANAEL T ZEMUI whose telephone number is (571)272-4894. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm (EST).
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/NATHANAEL T ZEMUI/Examiner, Art Unit 1727
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