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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 2/23/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is responsive to the amendment filed on 4/30/20205. Claims 1-19 are pending. Claims 15-19 are withdrawn from further consideration as being drawn to a non-elected invention, in accordance with 37 CFR 1.142(b). Applicant’s arguments have been considered. Claims 1-14 are non-finally rejected for reasons stated herein below.
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, 3, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Park (WO 2019/151833, using US 2020/0373558 as translation) in view of Motoda (US 2014/0242296).
Regarding claim 1, Park discloses a method of manufacturing an electrode for a secondary battery, comprising:
applying an electrode slurry including an electrode active material, a conductive material, and a non-aqueous binder, and a first non-aqueous organic solvent onto one surface or both surfaces of a current collector [0038, 0039, 0044, 0049];
applying an insulating composition including an aqueous binder dispersed in a second non-aqueous solvent so that the insulating composition covers from a portion of the non-coated part of the current collector to a portion of the electrode slurry applied onto the current collector [0051, 0052, 0054, 0058]; and
drying the electrode slurry and insulating composition applied onto the current collector [0078],
wherein the first non-aqueous organic solvent in the electrode slurry and the second non-aqueous organic solvent in the insulating composition are the same or same type of a non-aqueous organic solvent [0084, 0096].
Regarding claim 3, the applying the insulating composition is performed when the electrode slurry applied onto the current collector is not dried [0078].
Regarding claim 4, the non-aqueous organic solvent includes one or more of N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP), dimethyl formamide (DMF) and dimethyl acetamide (DMAc), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), ethylene carbonate (EC), diethyl carbonate (DEC), ethyl methyl carbonate (EMC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC), propylene carbonate (PC), dipropyl carbonate (DPC), butylene carbonate (BC), methyl propyl carbonate (MPC), ethyl propyl carbonate (EPC), acetonitrile, dimethoxyethane, tetrahydrofuran (THF), y-butyrolactone, methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, or isopropyl alcohol [0109].
Regarding claim 8, the non-aqueous binder includes one or more of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF- co-HFP), polyethylene oxide (PEO), polyacrylic acid (PAA), polyimide (PI), polyamideimide (PAI), or a polyimide-polyamideimide copolymer (PI-PAI) [0047].
Regarding claim 9, the aqueous binder includes one or more of styrene-butadiene rubber, acrylate styrene-butadiene rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene rubber, acrylic rubber, butyl rubber, fluoro rubber, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, an ethylene-propylene copolymer, polyethylene oxide, polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyepichlorohydrin, polyphosphazene, polyacrylonitrile, polystyrene, an ethylene-propylene-diene copolymer, polyvinylpyridine, chlorosulphonated polyethylene, latex, polyester resin, an acrylic resin, phenolic resin, an epoxy resin, polyvinyl alcohol, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, or diacetyl cellulose [0054].
Regarding claim 12, the drying the electrode slurry and the insulating composition applied onto the current collector is performed at an average temperature of 50 °C to 300 °C [0102].
Regarding claim 1, applying an insulating composition including an aqueous binder dispersed in a second non-aqueous solvent, wherein the insulating composition including the aqueous binder dispersed in the second non-aqueous organic solvent is obtained by adding the second non-aqueous organic solvent to aqueous binder that is dispersed in aqueous solvent to obtain a mixture, and removing water from the mixture, and regarding claim 11, the non-aqueous organic solvent is N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP), and the aqueous binder is styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), Park discloses the aqueous binder is, out of a list of 20 polymers, a styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) [0054]. Park discloses the non-aqueous organic solvent N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP) [0058]. Motoda teaches a method of making a polymer aqueous dispersion by polymerizing a monomer in an aqueous medium to give a polymer aqueous dispersion containing a polymer with a polymerization conversion rate of 90 to 100%, a step of obtaining a mixed solution by mixing N-methylpyrrolidone and the polymer aqueous dispersion, a step of obtaining a binder composition by removing an unreacted monomer and the aqueous medium from the mixed solution, and a step of obtaining a slurry by dispersing non-conductive microparticles in the binder composition, wherein the step of obtaining the binder composition includes removing the aqueous medium and the unreacted monomer by using a distillation column under a reduced pressure so that the binder composition contains the unreacted monomer in an amount of 300 ppm or less and a water content in an amount of 5,000 ppm or less [0014]. The polymer compound can be a styrene-butadiene copolymer (SBR) [0025]. The method forms a slurry for a heat-resistant layer for a lithium ion secondary battery by which a slurry with decreased amounts of water content and unreacted monomer can be efficiently obtained [0019]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to form Park’s SBR binder as taught by Motoda, for the benefit of forming the SBR efficiently.
Claims 2, 5-7, 10, 13, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park (WO 2019/151833, using US 2020/0373558 as translation) in view of Motoda (US 2014/0242296) as applied to claim 1, in view of Yoshida (JP 2017-212097).
Park does not disclose the limitations of claims 2, 12-14. Park discloses a wet-on-wet coating method, wherein an undried electrode active material layer is applied on a current collector. An undried insulating layer is applied onto the undried active material layer. The active material layer and an insulating layer are dried simultaneously [0079].
Yoshida teaches wherein an undried electrode active material layer is applied on a current collector using a die coater. An undried insulating layer is applied onto the undried active material layer. The active material layer and an insulating layer are dried simultaneously [0013, 0084].
Regarding claim 2, the applying the electrode slurry and the applying the insulating composition satisfy the following Expression 1:
[Expression 1] 0 < T2-T1 < 100 (sec) wherein,
T1 is time (sec) when the electrode slurry is discharged onto a current collector from a slot-die coater in the application of an electrode slurry, and T2 is time (sec) when the insulating composition is discharged onto a current collector from a slot-die coater in the application of an insulating composition, Yoshida teaches by applying insulating layer 112 a predetermined time after the tip of active material layer 111 reaches a position opposite to discharge outlet 212a of second die head 212, active material layer 111 can be exposed at the upstream end in the feed direction A of current collector 110 [0089].
Regarding claim 13, the applying the electrode slurry and the applying the insulating composition are performed using a single die coater including two slots. Figure 7.
Regarding claim 14, the applying the electrode slurry and the application of an insulating composition are performed using two separate die coaters. Figure 6.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to use the die coating method of Yoshida and adjust the predetermined time when the insulating layer is applied after the active material layer, as taught by Yoshida, for the benefit of adjusting the location of Park’s insulating layer.
Regarding claim 5, Park does not disclose the insulating composition further includes inorganic particles. Regarding claim 10, Park discloses the insulating composition includes: an aqueous binder dispersed in a non-aqueous solvent; but does not disclose inorganic particles dispersed in the aqueous binder matrix dispersed in a non-aqueous solvent, a weight ratio of the inorganic particle and the aqueous binder ranges from 1:99 to 95:5. Regarding claim 10, Park discloses a viscosity at 25 °C ranges from 50 cP to 50,000 cP [0098].
Yoshida teaches an insulating layer on an electrode. The insulating layer comprises an inorganic oxide and a binder [0052, 0053].
Regarding claim 5, the insulating composition further includes inorganic particles [0054].
Regarding claim 6, the inorganic particles are one or more of AIOOH, Al2O3, y-AIOOH, Al(OH)3, Mg(OH)2, Ti(OH)4, MgO, CaO, Cr2O3, MnO2, Fe2O3, Co3O4, NiO, ZrO2, BaTiO3, SnO2, CeO2, Y2O3, SiO2, silicon carbide (SIC), or boron nitride (BN) [0054].
Regarding claim 7, a weight ratio of the inorganic particle to the aqueous binder in the insulating composition ranges from 1:99 to 95:5 [0065].
Regarding claim 10, inorganic particles dispersed in the aqueous binder matrix dispersed in a non-aqueous solvent,
a weight ratio of the inorganic particle and the aqueous binder ranges from 1:99 to 95:5 [0054, 0065].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to add inorganic oxide particles to the insulating layer of Park, as taught by Yoshida, for the benefit of strengthening the insulating layer.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CYNTHIA KYUNG SOO WALLS whose telephone number is (571)272-8699. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F until 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jonathan Leong can be reached at 571-270-1292. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CYNTHIA K WALLS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1751
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