Appeal 2006-2523
Application 10/206,496
of the solution” is raised to any point “above the boiling point of ethanol,”
with the upper limit that the total amount of ethanol and added “alcohols” in
the solution “comprises up to about 75% of the reaction solution by weight;”
(4) increasing the temperature to any point between the boiling point of the
solution and the boiling point of ethanol; (5) adding any amount of water to
initiate the polymerization of the metallic precursors to form a contiguous
metal on the surface of the suspended metal substrate particles without
forming a participate or a gel in solution at this point in the method; and (6)
further adding water at a constant rate and maintaining the temperature of
the reaction medium at any point between the boiling point of the solution
and the boiling point of ethanol which increases the polymerization rate
above the initial polymerization rate until the polymerization is complete.
Dependent claim 2 modifies the method of claim 1 by “including the
additional step of stirring the solution . . . to maintain the metal substrate
particles in suspension.”
We notice the boiling point of ethanol is recognized in the chemical
arts as about 78.5°C.1
The open-ended term “comprising” in transition and in the body of
claim 1 opens the claim to include methods having additional steps and
ingredients in addition to those specified, including, for example, organic
substrate particles and the presence of other alcohols in the solution,
consistent with the method characterized in the preamble and the dependent
claims. See generally, Exxon Chem. Pats., Inc. v. Lubrizol Corp., 64 F.3d
1 See Monograph 3806. Ethyl Alcohol. The Merck Index 641-42 (Twelfth
Ed., Whitehouse Station, NJ, Merck & Co., Inc., 1996).
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