Appeal 2007-0128
Reexamination Control 90/006,208
Patent 5,573,648
electrical power from the consumption of reacting gases, for example,
electrolyzing water vapor to hydrogen and oxygen. Vanderborgh states that its
electrodes represent an improvement over the prior art. For example,
Vanderborgh’s electrodes minimize the amounts of electrocatalyst necessary to
achieve the highest value of water per mg of electrocatalyst. We conclude that it is
prima facie obvious to employ the known electrodes of Vanderborgh in the gas
sensor of Dempsey as Vanderborgh teaches that its electrodes may be employed in
devices involving the generation of electrical current due to the consumption of
reacting gases and as Vanderborgh teaches that its electrodes represent an
improvement over the prior art.
We conclude that one of ordinary skill in the art presented with Dempsey
and Grot, Uchida and/or Vanderborgh would have been motivated to use the
proton-electron mixed conductive electrodes described in Grot, Uchida and
Vanderborgh in Dempsey=s gas sensor.
Additionally, we conclude that one of ordinary skill in the art would be
motivated to construct Dempsey’s gas sensor having the claimed electrode
diameter as Dempsey teaches that counter and sensing electrodes having a diameter
of 16
mm are suitable for use in a compact electrochemical gas sensing cell for detecting
gases. Alternatively, we find that one of ordinary skill in the art would know that
the size of the sensing and counter electrodes are result effective variables for
electrochemical gas sensors as the size of the electrode will affect the amount of
current flow and sensitivity of the sensor. (See, e.g., Dempsey, col. 6, ll. 20-37).
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