David Wichner More than 30 years ago, a pair of MIT Ph.D. grads landed in Tucson and developed electronically dimmed glass that would later find its way into millions of cars as auto-dimming rearview mirrors.
People are also reading… While electrochromic glass technology has been around for decades, its use for windows has been limited to commercial buildings because of its high cost — some 10 times the cost of standard insulated windows. Michigan-based Donnelly became a leading supplier of self-dimming auto mirrors, and it was acquired by auto parts supplier Magna International in 2002.
“We were working on a variety of different technologies,” Agrawal said, besides electrochromic glass including a collaboration on beryllium analysis with Los Alamos National Laboratory and anti-microbial materials. Agrawal likened the design to a dry-call battery, including a solid electrolyte, or layer that allows electrons to flow between electrodes to charge or discharge a battery.
Cronin said the company has refuted the idea that organic dyes can’t match the durability of dimmable glass made with inorganic metal oxides. Robert Tenent, senior materials scientist at NREL, noted the government lab has been working on organic dye based electrochromics with Glass Dyenamics since the initial collaboration with the Wells Fargo’s incubator and continue to be impressed.
Looking ahead, the company is working to raise an initial round of venture-capital funding to build a pilot glass plant in Tucson, said Angelo, who recently moved from the San Francisco Bay area to Bend, Oregon.
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