Appeal No. 95-3674
Application 08/122,981
assumed to be nanostructured, are compacted and sintered to
produce a nanoporous body. Appellants do not define
"nanoporous" in their arguments. While there are definitions
of "nanoporous" in the literature, it is not known whether the3
term has a generally accepted definition in the prior art. It
is not known whether "nanostructured" materials are inherently
"nanoporous"; however, it appears from the definition in the
Dagani article that a "nanostructured" material merely has to
contain small grains and does not necessarily have to be
compacted and sintered. We define "nanoporous," consistent
with the specification, to mean a product produced by the
process in figure 1, which requires steps of compacting and
sintering a nanostructured powder.
The examiner relies on the fifth preferred embodiment of
Yokotani. As shown in figure 6, "a glass balloon material
having an average particle size of 8µm and a film thickness of
0.5 µm is used as support particles" (col. 7, approx.
lines 43-45). Yokotani discloses that the p-type or n-type
semiconductor materials are "milled into a powder having an
average particle size of 0.08 µm" (col. 7, approx.
For example, U.S. Patent 5,594,263 states (col. 1,3
lines 64-67): "By nanoporous is meant a material which has a
crystallographically regular intracrystalline pore system whose
pores have an average diameter of 2.5 to about 30 Å."
- 7 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007