Electrochromics Discovery Follows Succession of Breakthroughs

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – When you’re in the business of creating new, disruptive chemistries and materials at a rapid pace while reducing costs, beating tremendous odds to discover a molecule that could spawn new commercial markets is both exciting and expected.

So, when Kebotix succeeded in its quest to find the next generation of electrochromic glass, high fives were shared along with the sense of duty to science that comes with having the right tools. After all, rapidly generating new chemicals with desired properties is a central pillar for Kebotix.

“Our AI does the needle in haystack search for us,” said Dr. Christoph Kreisbeck, Kebotix chief commercial officer, noting an ingredient that makes up what he calls “Kebotix’s secret sauce” that, in this instance, yielded results not in one to two years as would be the case in a typical lab, but in two months. 

Despite an extremely low chance of finding new electrochromic material for smart window applications among commercially available chemicals, Kebotix had confidence in the strength of its AI-powered suite prediction capabilities, which includes employing a proprietary self-driving lab for materials discovery powered by AI and robots. Taking a data-driven approach to molecular discovery and leveraging the ability of AI to learn chemical intuition, Kebotix scientists uploaded and reviewed millions of commercially available chemicals. 

“Our self-driving lab was not only able to identify the very few winning champions among the 7 million purchasable molecules, but our AI ‘dreamed up’ hundreds of additional novel electrochromic molecules, each satisfying our target property profile,” Kreisbeck said.

Electrochromics discovery is a quintessential project for Kebotix, according to company CEO Dr. Jill S. Becker.

“As our AI and robotics-powered platform was proving itself by unearthing a novel material at breakneck speed, we were living up to the mission upon which Kebotix was founded: ‘To accelerate the exploration, discovery, use and production of new molecules and materials that can solve some of the world’s most urgent problems,’” Becker said.

In the three-plus years since Kebotix’s founding was publicly announced, the Cambridge, Mass.-based technology platform company has been tapped by numerous like-minded industry leaders in need of pioneering 21st century methods.

Koura (formerly Mexichem Fluor), a major global provider of products and solutions across multiple industrial sectors, partnered with Kebotix on the discovery of environmentally friendly high-performance materials. For the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the National Institutes for Health (NIH), Kebotix enhanced productivity of the agency’s high-throughput experimentation (HTE) via AI-driven optimization of assay conditions for biosynthesis inhibitors – the ultimate goal being faster delivery of new treatments and cures for diseases.

Back to Kebotix’s promising breakthrough in the field of electrochromics, the few in a million odds the company had confidence in beating can potentially create a new class of smart glass that with a small electric current lets light through but not the heat, and does so transparently. 

“If you look at the patent landscape, commercially used electrochromic smart glasses are mostly based on metal oxides which require complex fabrication processes and are still too expensive for penetrating the residential market,” Kreisbeck said. “The smart windows market needs new, performant and lower cost technologies that stimulate adoption and spawn sustainable applications. Electrochromics is a technology that’s still emerging and has huge potential.”

Another reason Kebotix took on this challenge is electrochromic materials have inherent properties and benefits that support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, with which every project and partnership at Kebotix is aligned.

“Residential and commercial buildings are examples of sectors that are major contributors to carbon dioxide emissions,” Becker said. “Electrochromic glass reduces energy consumption and provides a smart technology to keep our living rooms at a comfortable temperature whatever the season.” 

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