Our History

The Discovery

The year was 2003 and Michael Harvey, supervised by Associate Professor Paul Meredith, was working on his PhD research at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Like most scientists, he literally lived in the laboratory. One day, while in the midst of an experiment, the chemicals he had been working with spilled onto the glass surface of his table. To his mounting excitement, he noticed a very unusual and unanticipated effect: the spilled chemicals turned the glass into a surface that was almost perfectly clear and non-reflecting. Like many discoveries, it wasn’t until many months later—after substantial effort and analysis—that this effect was scientifically understood.

What Michael had discovered was a new and remarkably effective way to treat the surface of glass (and plastics) with a coating that would reduce the reflected light to nearly zero. It was the holy grail of optical anti-reflective coatings—something that has absorbed scientific imaginations since the 19th century, when Lord Rayleigh observed the anti-reflective effect on a pair of old tarnished glasses. Since those early days, XeroCoat has received numerous innovation awards and Australian government funds to develop the technology for commercial applications. Because of the importance of solving the world's energy challenges, XeroCoat is focusing its efforts on the exciting and rapidly growing solar energy industry.