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
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.
The instant claims contain the transitional phrase “comprising”. Per MPEP 2111.03 ‘The transitional term “comprising”, which is synonymous with “including,” “containing,” or “characterized by,” is inclusive or open-ended and does not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps'. This open-ended definition has been taken into consideration in the following rejections.
Claims 1-6 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN110157407A to Li et al. (hereinafter Li), provided in the IDS filed 7/9/24, using a machine translation in view of “Engineering Brightness-Matched Indium Phosphide Quantum Dots” by Toufanian, provided in the IDS filed 7/9/24.
Regarding claim 1, Li discloses a preparation method of an indium phosphide quantum dot (InP QD, para [0001]), comprising the following steps:
S1: mixing an indium precursor, a zinc precursor, and a coordination solvent to obtain an indium and zinc precursor solution (para [0013]-[0014]);
S2: controlling the indium and zinc precursor solution obtained in the S1 to a first
temperature, adding a phosphorus precursor, and heating to a second temperature and holding the second temperature to obtain an indium phosphide (InP) core solution (para [0015]), wherein the first temperature is 0°C to 220°C (para [0019]), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 50°C to 80°C, and the second temperature is 120°C to 220°C (para [0019]), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 150°C to 180°C;
S3: adding a shell precursor to the InP core solution obtained in the S2, and heating to a third temperature and holding the third temperature to obtain an InP QD solution with an intermediate shell (para [0016]), wherein the third temperature is 220°C to 320°C (para [0019), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 290°C to 320°C; and
S4: adding an anionic precursor and a cationic precursor successively to the InP QD solution obtained in the S3 and holding the third temperature to obtain the InP QD with a shell layer that gradually thickens (para [0020]) where the shell layer comprises one or more of ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnSeS (para [0026]). Also see MPEP 2144.05(I), which states that ‘In the case where the claimed ranges “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists’. Li does not expressly recite the gradually thickening shell layer as an intermediate shell layer and an outer shell layer and is silent regarding Stokes shift.
However, Toufanian does teach a method of making quantum dots comprising an InP core and a shell layer with a particular thickness (abstract) where the shell layers comprise one or more of ZnS and ZnSe (page 1965, para 4). The reference further teaches that a shell layer comprises at least one shell monolayer (page 1965, para 4). When the precursors of S4 are the same as in S3, the monolayers form intermediate and outer shells of the same material, such as InP/ZnS/ZnS. When the precursors of S3 and S4 are different, the monolayers form intermediate and outer shells of different materials, such as InP/ZnSe/ZnS (parge 1965, para 3). Toufanian further teaches that the InP quantum dots exhibit a large Stokes (color) shift (page 1971, para 2).
It would therefore be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the thick shell layer of Li may comprise more than 1 shell monolayer including an intermediate (S3) and outer shell (S4) as set forth in Toufanian to optimize desired optical properties, including but not limited to quantum yield, brightness (Toufanian, abstract), emission and full width at half maximum (FWHM) (Li, para [0026]), absent evidence to the contrary. It would also be obvious that controlling shell thickness facilitates tailoring the color of light emitted including Stokes shift (Toufanian, page 1971, para 2) and the brightness of said colored light (Toufanian, abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein in the S1, after the indium precursor, the zinc precursor and the coordination solvent are mixed, a protective gas is introduced (para [0013]), evacuation of the reaction vessel is conducted (para [0048]), and heating and heat preservation are conducted to obtain the indium and zinc precursor solution; the protective gas is one or more of a rare gas and nitrogen (para [0018]); and a temperature for the heating is 0°C to 220°C (para [0019]), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 120°C to 140°C and a time for the heat preservation is 5 minutes to 6 h (para [0015], 360 min), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 1 h to 2 h. See MPEP 2144.05(I), cited above. Li discloses evacuation of the reaction vessel but does not expressly recite vacuum-pumping.
However, Toufanian does teach a method of making quantum dots (abstract), wherein after the indium precursor, the zinc precursor and the coordination solvent are mixed, a protective gas is introduced, and vacuum pumping (cycles of evacuation and gas backfills) is conducted to evacuate the reaction vessel (page 1971, para 5).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to employ the vacuum pumping of Toufanian to perform the evacuation step in Li to sufficiently remove moisture/water and air/oxygen (Toufanian, page 1971, para 4 and Li, para [0013] and [0047]-[0048]) in a simple and cost-effective manner.
Regarding claim 3, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein in the S2, the second temperature is held for 5 to 360 min (para [0015]), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 10 min to 150 min; in the S3, the third temperature is held for 0 min to 60 min; and in the S4, the third temperature is held for 0 min to 60 min (para [0016]). As discussed above, S3 and S4 may comprise a thick shell that includes monolayers of the S3 and S4 precursor materials.
Regarding claim 4, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein in the S1, the indium precursor is indium trichloride (para [0021], indium chloride, InCl3) and the zinc precursor is one or more of zinc halides (para [0022]); and in the S2, the phosphorus precursor is tris(dimethylamino)phosphine (para [0024]).
Regarding claim 5, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein in the S1, the coordination solvent is oleylamine (para [0023]).
Regarding claim 6, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein in the S3, the shell precursor comprises at least one selected from a group comprising dodecyl mercaptan and selenium/trioctylphosphine (Se/TOP) (para [0025]).
Regarding claim 8, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein the shells are selected from ZnSexS1-x where x is in a value range of 0 to 1 and ZnS (one or more of ZnS, ZnSe and ZnSeS, para [0044]) but does not expressly disclose that the outer shell is ZnS and that the intermediate shell is ZnSexS1-x where x is in a value range of 0 to 1.
However, Toufanian does teach wherein the intermediate layer is ZnSe, (ZnSexS1-x , when x=1) and the outer shell is ZnS, such as InP/ZnSe/ZnS (page 1972, para 6 and 7).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to select the particular compositions and arrangement of the intermediate and outer shells to tailor the color, brightness (Toufanian, abstract), and color purity of light emitted in a simple and controllable manner (Li, para [0009]).
Regarding claim 9, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein the InP QD has an average size of ~10 nm (para [0046]), which falls within the instantly claimed range of 9 nm to 14 nm.
Regarding claim 10, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses wherein the InP QD has an emission peak at 450 to 700 nm (para [0026]), which overlaps the instantly claimed range of 460 nm to 650 nm, and a full width at half maximum of 50 nm (para [0026]), which falls within the instantly claimed range of less than 70 nm. See MPEP 2144.05(I) cited above.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Toufanian and further in view of US 2020/0308478 A1 Yang et al. (hereinafter Yang).
Regarding claim 7, Li in view of Toufanian discloses the preparation method of the InP QD according to claim 1. Li further discloses Se/TOP as an anionic precursor (para [0044]) but does not expressly disclose S/TOP as the anionic precursor. Li further discloses a cationic precursor comprising zinc and oleylamine in a mixed precursor solution (para [0046]).
Toufanian further teaches wherein in the S4, the anionic precursor is selected from S/TOP (page 1971, para 5) and Se/TOP (page 1972, para 2) and the cation precursor is zinc oleate (page 1971, para 6).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to employ S/TOP as an obvious alternative to Se/TOP when forming a sulfur containing layer, such as ZnS (Toufanian, page 1972, para 1 and 7).
Neither Li nor Toufanian expressly recite zinc/oleylamine, in particular, as the cation precursor.
However, Yang does teach a method of making an InP/ZnS core/shell quantum dot (para [0111]) employing a zinc/oleylamine cation shell precursor (para [0122]-[0123]) as an obvious alternative to zinc oleate (para [0112]-[0113]). Yang also teaches S-TOP as an anion precursor (para [0117]).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to employ the zinc/oleylamine cation shell precursor of Yang as an obvious alternative to the zinc oleate precursor of Toufanian, as they are considered obvious variants in the art (Yang, [0113] and [0123]).
Conclusion
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/L.E./Examiner, Art Unit 1734 /Matthew E. Hoban/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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