Drexel Materials start-ups account for two of three investments made in the second cohort of the Drexel Innovation Fund. 1DNano, a nanomaterial cleantech company; and MXene, Inc., a company focused on the commercialization of nanomaterials called MXenes; will each receive an investment of $150,000 from the fund.
1Dnano is commercializing hydroxides-derived nanostructures (HDNs) which are one-dimensional nanofilaments discovered in 2021 by Distinguished professor Michel Barsoum and Hussein Badr (PhD ’23) while he was a doctoral researcher in the Layered Solids Group. Gregory Schwenk, post-doctoral researcher in the Layered Solids Group co-founded and serves as CEO of 1DNano. 1Dnano aims to use the capacity of HDNs to help sunlight glean hydrogen from water for months at a time to significantly reduce the cost of green hydrogen.
MXene, Inc., led by CTO Kyle Matthews (PhD ’24) and COE Sebastian Osswald (PhD ‘09) is working to become the leading supplier of MXenes, a 2D nanomaterial discovered in 2011 by two groups of Drexel researchers, led by Barsoum and Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach professor. MXenes are a class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds that consist of atomically thin layers of transition metal carbides, nitrides, or carbonitrides. Their versatility in composition, arrangement, surface chemistry, and tunability creates potential benefits in a wide variety of applications such as energy, electronics, optics, catalysis, biomedical and environmental sectors.
The Drexel University Innovation Fund invests in early-stage Drexel student and postgraduate-led startups, as well as startups founded to commercialize the results of scientific research developed at Drexel. The fund, which launched in 2023, aspires to play the role of a “friends and family” investor and encourages Drexel problem solvers to dream big and take on society’s most pressing challenges. The fund is an evergreen fund where all returns are re-invested through the fund in future Drexel startups.
For more information on the Drexel University Innovation Fund, visit: drexel.edu/applied-innovation/funding/innovation-fund or contact applied_innovation@drexel.edu.