Duncan McInnes/Staff Photographer Wayne Jones, professor of chemistry, collaborated with colleagues to create more durable glass dyes to protect jet cockpits.
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Even at 40,000 feet, pilots can succumb to distractions. But Binghamton University researchers are trying to make the cockpit a safer place.

Chemistry professors Wayne Jones and William Bernier collaborated with Kenneth Skorenko, a chemistry graduate student, to create more efficient dyes to protect cockpit windows. Organic dyes are found in many glass products, like sunglasses and plasma TVs.

These dyes convey color and absorb light, and can protect airplane pilots from surrounding distractions, such as lasers, which can affect their ability to safely control the plane. According to Skorenko, people on the ground shine lasers at planes as a joke, thinking it won’t do any harm. But the lights can shine into the cockpit and affect the pilot’s focus.

Jones said the major challenge for pilots is disorientation.

“It’s a nuisance, but it could be a distraction,” he said. “When you’re coming in and you’re trying to land a great big jet liner, you don’t want your pilot distracted for even a moment.”

Typically, organic dyes decompose at temperatures around 120-150°C, but the new dyes remain stable at up to 300°C.

“I’ve been calling it optical nano-material,” Bernier said. “It’s the organic dye, but it’s complex with the metal oxides. It has many optically related applications.”

Jones said his interest was sparked about 10 years ago when he helped friends from a local chemistry business sell their organic dyes to the photography market.

He then teamed up with Skorenko, then a PhD candidate, and the two were joined by Bernier shortly afterwards. The three of them discovered the process behind the development of these organic dyes about two years ago.

“I actually got the idea for a process because of a class,” Skorenko explained. “I thought it would be really cool if I could use the electric chemistry from the class on the SPIR project. I decided to do it, go through with it, and it worked out really well.”

According to Jones and Bernier, the dyes can be incorporated into a pilot’s glasses or the plane windshield. Most glasses currently worn by pilots use organic dyes that aren’t compatible with the glass, which causes them to block out necessary light and make night flying difficult.

The dyes Jones and his researchers have developed are more compatible with the material and better able to pinpoint the specific light that pilots need to be protected from.

“What’s unique about these dyes and what makes these dyes very specific is their ability to target specific wave lengths much more effectively,” Jones said. “Because of the optical precision of the dyes, they really only knock out a wavelength or two.”

The dyes are currently patent pending and the team has formed a company called ChromaNanoTech to commercialize their product. The company is housed in BU’s Innovative Technologies Center (ITC) and is a part of the START-UP NY program.