Merck will use the investment to build a production facility for building the smart windows. The German chemical company will announce the location of the site within a few weeks. Production is expected to begin at the beginning of 2017.

The technology for the smart windows, based on liquid crystals, was developed at TU/e. Casper van Oosten came across materials that could enable windows to darken and generate energy during his PhD, supervised by Kees Bastiaansen and Dick Broer of the Chemical Engineering department. Together with Teun Wagenaar he founded Peer+ in 2008 and with his company obtained a number of innovation subsidies before it was acquired by Merck in 2014. 

This investment by Merck is the next step in the multinational’s strategy aimed at using this liquid crystal technology for innovative new applications other than LCD screens. Several pilot projects have been started up for this technology, such as the Merck Innovation Center in Darmstadt, part of which already has ‘smart windows’, and the company’s new production plant for OLEDs that will also have ‘smart windows’.

Source: TU/e press team