Wake
Forest University has launched two startup companies,
FiberCell and PlexiLight, to turn breakthrough technologies developed
at the university’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular
Materials into products for the commercial marketplace.
FiberCell plans to develop the next generation of solar cells
based on a novel architecture that utilizes nanotechnology and optical
fibers to dramatically boost efficiency. The technology FiberCell is
using stems from research Wake Forest scientists conducted in
conjunction with New Mexico State University.
PlexiLight plans to develop a revolutionary lighting source
that is lightweight, ultra-thin and energy efficient because it uses
nanotechnology to produce visible light directly rather than as a
byproduct of heating a filament or gas. Its unique properties suggest a
wide range of residential, commercial and even military applications.
“It looks like a sheet of plexiglass that lights
up,” explains David Carroll, associate professor of physics
and director of Wake Forest’s nanotechnology center, where
the concept was born. “Together with the new high-efficiency
solar cells, we are addressing the energy crisis from both the supply
and demand sides.”
Carroll’s lab this spring announced a breakthrough
in plastic solar cell efficiency. Researchers were able to convert a
record 6 percent of incoming visible light to electricity by using
“nano-filaments” similar to the veins in tree
leaves. Using the new fiber optic structure, Carroll expects to raise
the efficiency rate soon to a level that will make plastic solar cells
competitive with existing silicon and proposed non-silicon systems.
While solar collectors with the new technology might look similar to
existing panels, they could be installed in new ways because their
efficiency is not as dependent on the angle of the sun.
FiberCell and PlexiLight have received startup funding from
Wake Forest and Connecticut-based NanoHoldings, which specializes in
building early-stage nanotechnology companies around exclusive licenses
from leading research universities. Daryl Boudreaux, a partner of
NanoHoldings, will be the president of both startups, which will be
located in Winston-Salem.
“The reason that we were attracted to both of these
technologies is that they are fundamentally different and fundamentally
more efficient than anything else we know about out there,”
Boudreaux says. “They give us a platform from which we can
develop numerous products.”
For example, PlexiLight could target development of a
substitute for the fluorescent ceiling light fixtures used in nearly
all commercial buildings. The new technology may lead to
higher-efficiency panels that would have no bulbs or ballasts to wear
out and would not give off heat that requires additional energy to cool
buildings.
Electric lighting consumes about 30 percent of all the
electric power generated in the nation, according to the U.S.
Department of Energy, and lighting products represent a $13 billion
market in the United States and a $21 billion market worldwide.
Both new companies are funding further research by
Carroll’s lab to develop prototypes of various applications
for the respective technologies. Boudreaux says FiberCell and
PlexiLight plan to lease space at Winston-Salem’s Piedmont
Triad Research Park, the downtown research campus at the juncture of
U.S. Highway 52 and Interstate 40 that Wake Forest University Health
Sciences is developing in collaboration with a variety of public,
private and nonprofit partners. In addition to hiring Wake Forest
postdoctoral fellows, some of the invested funds are being used to hire
interns from Forsyth Technical Community College, who have been
enrolled in its nanotechnology program.
“There has been great support for this transition
from the entire community,” says Mark Welker, associate
provost for research at Wake Forest. “These companies will
help our research through funding back to the university, the downtown
research park as a tenant, and Forsyth Tech by employing their
nanotechnology program graduates.”
While numerous university research discoveries in the
biomedical sciences have made the transition to the private sector from
the university’s Bowman Gray Campus, Stephen Susalka,
assistant director of Wake Forest’s Office of Technology
Asset Management, sees a promising future for intellectual property
transfers from the Reynolda Campus, including the nanotechnology center.
“The fact that we’re creating two new
companies at the same time is a testament to the breadth and quality of
research being pursued at Wake Forest,” Susalka says.
According to a 2005 survey by the Association of University
Technology Managers, among those schools reporting, Wake Forest ranked
fourth in the nation in annual license income with about $50 million in
revenues. And over the past two years, Susalka notes, 15 to 18 percent
of all Wake Forest research invention disclosures have named at least
one Reynolda Campus inventor.
“Wake Forest supports many types of research and
creative activities including innovative research that produces
practical applications with commercial potential,” Welker
says. “We expect that strategy to yield long-term benefits
for the university, the area economy and society at-large.”
Posted 23rd July 2004
