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 .
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/10/26 has been entered.
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 1-4, 15, and 17-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olga Burchak et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0066710, here after Burchak-2), further in view of Yuan Yao et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2007/0166899, here after Yao).
Claims 1-2, and 19 are rejected. Burchak-2 teaches a method for the preparation of composite material comprising at least silicon nanowires and catalyst (copper), comprising at least the following stages:
(A) introducing into a chamber of a reactor, in an absence of any medium or
solvent, a solid/solid mixture of at least a catalyst(copper) in powder form, a growth support in powder form (silicon particles) [abstract, 0108],
a mass ratio copper halide/growth support ranging from 0.02 to 0.5(converting molar ratio we will have mass ratio of 0.0226) [0113],
(B) growing silicon nanowires in the chamber of the reactor, from at least one
precursor compound of the silicon nanowires selected from a silane compound or a mixture of silane compounds [abstract, 0053], and
(C) recovering the product[abstract]. Burchak-2 teaches the catalyst is copper particles but does not teach the catalyst is CuCl2. Yao teaches a method of
depositing silicon nanowires on a substrate with CVD, where a copper catalyst is
applied by applying CuCl2 in form of solid powder to substrate(silicon) [0028, 0024].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the
invention was made to have a method of Burchak-2 where the catalyst (CuCl2) is introduced to the powder substrate, because it is suitable way to apply CuCl2 on a substrate for growing SiNW's. Burchak-2 teaches the catalyst is at least partially bonded to the surface of at least one silicon particle [0115] which is in fact defines mixing (to bring into close association, Merriam-Webster dictionary), and Yao also teaches bring into close association (mixing the coper halide and the growth support, silicon) in the chamber of reactor [0026].
Claim 3 is rejected. Burchak-2 teaches introducing, into the chamber of the reactor, at least one precursor compound of the silicon nanowires chosen from a silane compound or a mixture of silane compounds,
decreasing the dioxygen content in the chamber of the reactor,
applying a thermal treatment at a temperature ranging from 350°C to 550°C [0157, 0178, 0034-0035].
Claim 4 is rejected as Burchak-2 teaches the preparation of the composite material is implemented in a fixed-bed reactor [fig. 4].
Claim 15 is rejected as Burchak-2 teaches the growth support is silicon nanoparticles or silicon microparticles [0259].
Claim 17 is rejected as Yao teaches the copper halide (cupric chloride) is used
(as raw material) [0028].
Claim 18 is rejected as Yao teaches the copper halide (cupric chloride) is in
powder form [0028].
Claim 20 is rejected as Burchak-2 [0028], and Yao [0029] both teach the precursor compound of the silicon nanowires is silane (SiH4).
Claim 21 is rejected as Burchak-2 teaches the thermal treatment is performed at a temperature ranging from 350 °C to 550 °C [0035].
Claim 22 is rejected. Burchak-2 teaches the thermal treatment is applied from 1 minute to 5 hours [0183].
Claim 23 is rejected. Burchak-2 is a post-treatment step in order to transform (also) organics resulting from the precursor compound of the silicon nanowires into carbon materials [0211].
Claim 24 is rejected. further comprising an additional step of washing the composite material obtained at the end of step (C) [0036].
Claim 25 is rejected. Burchak-2 teaches introduction, into the reactor, of at least one doping material [0144].
Claim 26 is rejected. Burchak-2 and Yao teach the limitation of claim 1, and Burchak-2 teaches a method of making an electrode including a current collector, covering at least one surface of the current collector with a composition comprising said silicon-copper composite material as an electrode active material [0055, 0236].
Claim 27 is rejected. Burchak-2 and Yao teach limitation of claim 26 and teaches a method of making an energy storage device including a cathode, an anode, and a separator disposed between the cathode and the anode, to make at least one of the electrodes [0324-0325].
Claims 5-6, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olga Burchak et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0066710, here after Burchak-2), Yuan Yao et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2007/0166899, here after Yao), further in view of Olga Burchak et al (WO 2021/018598 here after Burchak).
Claims 5-6 are rejected. Burchak-2 teaches the growth support is silicon
nanoparticles, and not carbonaceous polymer fibers. Burchart teaches a method of making composite material comprising silicon nanowires and catalyst(copper) to be used in making electrode for batteries in a reactor [fig. 1], where support for growing silicon nanowires is are polymer precursor such as carbonaceous polymer fibers [page 10 lines 22-28]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Burchak-2 where the support is polymeric fiber material, because it is suitable support to grow silicon nanowire on it.
Claim 14 is rejected as Burchak teaches the carbon-based material (fiber) has mean particle size of 0.01-100 um [see fig. 2, and 3A].
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 07/29/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The applicant argument regarding Cao does not teach new limitations of amended claim 1 is not persuasive as Burchak-2 teaches the new limitation of amended claim 1 (see claim rejection above), Burchak-2 teaches combining silicon nanoparticles and catalyst and bring them in close contact which means mixing and it happens in the reactor( see claim rejection above. Furthermore, Cao is not a part of current claim rejection. furthermore Yao catalyst of CuCl2 leads copper catalyst as it decomposes to copper and Burchak and Burchak-2 both teach catalyst as copper.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TABASSOM TADAYYON ESLAMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1885. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6.
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/TABASSOM TADAYYON ESLAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1718
