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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over paper of Zhengyi Chen, “Green photoreduction synthesis of dispersible gold nanoparticles and their direct in situ assembling in multidimensional substrates for SERS detection”, 12 July 2022 here after Chen in view of Siliu Tan, “Synthesis of Positively Charged Silver Nanoparticles via Photoreduction of AgNO3 in Branched Polyethyleneimine/HEPES
Solutions”, June 15, 2007 hereafter Tan.
With regard to claim 1, Chen teaches an analyte analysis method comprising:
a mixing step of mixing an analyte “multidimensional substrate” (abstract, lines 9-10) (fig 1, g-C3N4 or MOF), a metal ion solution (fig 1, AuCl4), and a reducing agent (fig 1, CH3OH) to prepare a mixture solution;
a metal microstructure generation step of irradiating the mixture solution with light (fig 1, UV light),
reducing metal ions in the mixture solution by reducing action average diameter of the “average diameter…AuNPs decreased with the increase in the amount of CH3OH” of the reducing agent in the mixture solution to generate a metal microstructure “produced several Au0 nuclei” (pg. 6, col 2, ¶ 2, lines 1-5) (fig 1, AuNP), and attaching the analyte to the metal microstructure “MIL-101(Cr)@AuNPs” (fig 4, C) “g-C3N4@AuNPs” (fig 3, C); and
a measurement step of irradiating the metal microstructure (fig 3 & 4, D) with excitation
light, and measuring a spectrum of Raman scattered light generated by the excitation light irradiation.
Chen does not teach a support.
Tan, in the same field of endeavor of photoreduction of Nanoparticles for SERS, teaches metal structures may be formed on a clean silicon wafer substate (fig 1, SiO2) during photoreduction (pg. 2, ¶ 2, lines 20-25). At the time prior to the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Tan’s support with Chen’s metal microstructures as a design choice for an uncontaminated surface to support the metal microstructures during photoreduction.
With regard to claim 2, Chen teaches an analyte analysis method comprising:
a mixing step of mixing a metal ion solution (fig 1, AuCl4) and a reducing agent (fig 1, CH3OH) to prepare a mixture solution;
a metal microstructure generation step of irradiating the mixture solution with light (fig 1, UV light), and
reducing metal ions “average diameter….AuNPs decreased with the increase in the amount of CH3OH” in the mixture solution by reducing action of the reducing agent in the mixture solution to generate a metal microstructure “produced several Au0 nuclei” (pg. 6, col 2, ¶ 2, lines 1-5);
an attachment step of attaching an analyte “MIL-101(Cr)@AuNPs” (fig 4, C) “g-C3N4@AuNPs” (fig 3, C) to the metal microstructure on the support; and
a measurement step of, after the attachment step, irradiating the metal microstructure (fig 3 & 4, D)
with excitation light, and measuring a spectrum of Raman scattered light generated by the excitation light irradiation
Chen does not teach a support.
Tan, in the same field of endeavor of photoreduction of Nanoparticles for SERS, teaches metal structures may be formed on a clean silicon wafer substate (fig 1, SiO2) during photoreduction (pg. 2, ¶ 2, lines 20-25). At the time prior to the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Tan’s support with Chen’s metal microstructures as a design choice for an uncontaminated surface to support the metal microstructures during photoreduction.
With respect to claim 3 according to claim 1, the combination teaches the analyte analysis method wherein, in the metal microstructure generation step, the mixture solution “g-C3N4 nanosheet” is irradiated with the light “70 W UV lamp” (pg. 3, col 1, ¶ 2, lines 3-5 Chen) having a wavelength of 200 nm “365 nm” or more and 400 nm or less “365 nm” (pg. 3, col 1, ¶ 2, line 5 Chen).
With respect to claim 4 according to claim 2, the combination teaches the analyte analysis method according wherein, in the metal microstructure generation step, the mixture solution “g-C3N4 nanosheet” is irradiated with the light “70 W UV lamp” having a wavelength of 200 nm or more “365 nm” and 400 nm or less “365 nm” (pg. 3, col 1, ¶ 2, line 5 Chen).
Conclusion
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/MAURICE C SMITH/Examiner, Art Unit 2877