Appeal No. 95-1091
Application 07/916,973
remaining in the present application, have been allowed by the
examiner. Claim 1 is illustrative of the appealed claims:
1. A process of forming a hydrophobic aerogel comprising
the steps of:
reacting a polymer having a skeleton structure of -(SiO -)
2
with a hydrophobic agent having hydrophobic groups as well as
functional groups reactive with silanol groups to obtain a
hydrophobic polymer;
dispersing said hydrophobic polymer in a dispersing medium
to form a resulting gel; and
supercritically drying said resulting gel at a temperature
and pressure above a critical point of said dispersing medium to
obtain a hydrophobic aerogel which has a porous structure.
The examiner relies upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Tewari et al. (Tewari) 4,610,863 Sept. 9, 1986
Unger et al. (Unger) 4,911,903 Mar. 27, 1990
T. M. Tillotson et al. (Tillotson), "Partially Hydrolyzed
Alkoxysilanes as Precursors for Silica Aerogels," 121 Materials
Research Society Symposium Proceedings 685-689 (C. Jeffrey
Brinker et al. eds., Apr. 5-8, 1988).
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a process for
forming a hydrophobic aerogel which finds utility in the form of
sheets for use as insulation within double glazed windows. The
process entails the conventional formation of an alcogel of a
polymer having a skeleton structure of -(SiO -) units, and using
2
the known technique of converting the alcogel into a hydrophobic
aerogel having a porous structure. Appellants' departure from
-2-
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