Prior art

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 11515528, I will search the USPTO database for the patent and examine its cited references.

USPTO Search for US Patent 115155528

As per the USPTO website, "Patent Public Search" is the tool to search the database of patents and patent application publications. I will use this tool to search for US Patent 11515528.

Most Relevant Prior Art for US Patent 11515528

The full text of US11515528 provides a "Prior art keywords" section listing "composite particle", "dendritic", "carbon", "particles", and "ion permeable". While these keywords provide a general idea of the prior art landscape, to find the most relevant prior art in the context of 35 U.S.C. § 102 (anticipation), it's necessary to examine the specific patent references cited within US11515528 itself.

Since the complete list of cited patents is not available in the provided text, I will identify the most relevant types of prior art discussed and their potential implications for anticipation based on the patent's own background and summary.

The patent explicitly discusses the shortcomings of existing technologies in its "Background of the Invention" section, which often points to the closest prior art the inventors aimed to improve upon.

1. Carbon-based anode materials (e.g., graphite):

   • Description: The patent states that carbon (C) in the form of graphite has a theoretical specific capacity of about 372 mAh/g but suffers from significant capacity losses during cycling.
   • Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): While basic carbon electrodes are fundamental prior art, US11515528 aims to overcome the capacity limitations and cycling losses by incorporating silicon and a specific porous, dendritic structure. Therefore, a generic graphite anode would not anticipate the novel features of US11515528's claims related to silicon nanocomposites and porous structures. However, prior art disclosing specific carbon electrode designs aimed at improving cycle life or capacity might be relevant to specific aspects of the claims related to the carbon dendritic particle's role or structure.
   • Relevant Claims: Potentially relevant to any claim that broadly mentions an "electrically conducting material" (e.g., carbon) as part of the dendritic particle, but the combination of features in US11515528's claims would likely differentiate it.

2. Silicon-based anode materials (pure Si):

   • Description: The patent highlights that silicon (Si) has a high theoretical specific capacity (about 4200 mAh/g) but suffers from significant volume expansion and contraction (up to 400%) during charge cycling, leading to irreversible mechanical damage and loss of contact with the current collector. It also notes their low electrical conductivity relative to carbon.
   • Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): Pure silicon anodes would not anticipate the claims of US11515528 because the claimed invention specifically addresses the drawbacks of pure Si by combining it with an electrically conducting material in a porous, dendritic nanocomposite structure designed to accommodate volume changes.
   • Relevant Claims: Potentially relevant to claims broadly covering "non-carbon Group 4A element" (e.g., silicon) nanoparticles, but again, the specific structural and compositional combination in US11515528's claims would be key to differentiating.

3. Silicon-carbon composites (prior art):

   • Description: The patent mentions that prior art silicon-carbon composites, prepared by pyrolysis, mechanical mixing, or milling, generally include Si particles embedded in or on a dense carbon matrix. However, it states that these composites offer "only limited stability and capacity enhancements relative to pure Si-based anodes" because the carbon can only accommodate large volume changes in Si particles to a limited degree.
   • Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This category represents the most direct prior art. Any prior patent disclosing a Si-C composite anode would be highly relevant. To anticipate US11515528's claims, a prior art reference would need to disclose a porous composite with agglomerated nanocomposites, where each nanocomposite features a dendritic particle of an electrically conducting material, and discrete, non-porous nanoparticles of a non-carbon Group 4A element (like silicon) are disposed on its surface, with the dendritic particles being in electrical communication. The porous, dendritic structure designed to accommodate volume changes, and the discrete, non-porous nature of the Si nanoparticles are distinguishing features emphasized by US11515528.
   • Relevant Claims: All independent claims (Anode Composition Claim, Granular Anode Composition Claim, and Method of Making an Anode Claim) would need to be carefully compared against such prior art Si-C composites. Specifically, claims related to the specific morphology (dendritic, agglomerated, porous, discrete non-porous nanoparticles) and electrical communication between dendritic particles would be critical.

Without the specific list of "Prior Art Documents" cited in US11515528, a definitive analysis of anticipation for each claim is not possible. However, the patent's own description of the relevant art strongly indicates that prior Si-C composite technologies would be the most critical area for anticipation analysis.