For Thomas Moore, PhD, director of the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis and a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University, an invitation to guest lecture turned into a joint invention with colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that contributed to a sustainable energy start-up. Moore had been asked to speak at a summer course taught by Daniel Nocera, PhD, the Henry Dreyfus professor of energy and professor of chemistry at MIT. After the lecture, Moore visited the MIT labs for a demonstration of a new catalyst that could split water into hydrogen and oxygen — a potential pathway to sustainable energy production. As the demonstration came to a close and the group headed to lunch, Moore mentioned that a type of solar cell he was developing could serve as a power source to enhance the ability of the catalyst to create this reaction. The co-invention was born, with Moore and his team developing a dye-sensitized solar cell that could power the MIT catalyst more cost-effectively. “This is what happens when scientists get together to dream,” Moore says. Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), which manages ASU’s IP, entered into an agreement with MIT’s TTO to protect and market the joint invention, which has been licensed to Sun Catalytix, a Cambridge, MA-based early-stage renewable energy start-up.
Source: ASU News