Whited Awarded International Patent

Matt Whited, assistant professor of chemistry, was recently awarded an international patent with co-workers at the University of Southern California and University of Michigan for “Compounds Capable of Undergoing Symmetry Breaking Intramolecular Charge Transfer in a Polarizing Medium and Organic Photovoltaic Devices Comprising the Same.” The invention describes a new photovoltaic cell design inspired by the biological photosystem that is capable of highly efficient charge separation for energy storage.