Appeal 2007-4240
Application 10/663,949
Specification 3:1-5. Appellants acknowledge the sintering process of
forming the anode fuel electrode from a mixture of nickel and YSZ as
disclosed by Jensen. Id. 3:11-14. Appellants acknowledge forming the
anode fuel electrode by plasma spraying, including APS, VPS, and flame
spraying “a molten powdered metal or metal oxide onto an underlying
substrate surface using a plasma thermal spray gun to form a deposited layer
having a microstructure generally characterized by accumulated molten
particle splats.” Id. 3:16-4:6.
We, like Appellants, find no disclosure in Ramanarayanan which
would have described to one skilled in this art or suggested to one of
ordinary skill in this art that the anode fuel electrode of nickel in the YSZ
skeleton for the SOFCs disclosed therein can be formed on the surface of the
YSZ electrolyte by plasma spraying a mixture of nickel and YSZ powders as
the Examiner contends. See Answer, e.g., 4-5, 7-8, 9-10, 12-13, and 15-16;
Br. 6-7; Reply Br., e.g., 4. Indeed, neither of the two specific methods
disclosed by Ramanarayanan to deposit the specific anode fuel electrode
skeletal structure involves plasma spraying, and Ramanarayanan’s statement
that the deposition of the Ni-YSZ skeletal structure by depositing a slurry of
the materials followed by sintering is less costly compared to EVD is further
supported by the same disclosure in Jensen. Appellants acknowledge that
the EVD method of depositing the Ni-YSZ skeletal structure was known.
Cable does not disclose forming any layer of SOFC by plasma spraying.
Thus, we are further not convinced by the Examiner’s contention that one
skilled in the art and one of ordinary skill in the art would have formed the
Ni-YSZ skeletal structure because of the knowledge in the art that YSZ can
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