Photovoltaic Cell Increases Nighttime Power Generation

The device uses a thermoelectric module to generate voltage and current from the temperature gradient between the cell and the air.

Thermomagnetic Generators Convert Waste Heat into Electrical Power

Many technical processes only use part of the energy consumed. The remaining fraction leaves the system in the form of waste heat. Frequently, this heat is released into the...

Accelerating Product Development through Digital Transformation

Increasingly powerful integrated circuit and system-on-chip devices are growing in importance to vehicle design.

Process Converts Ethanol to Jet Fuel

A new catalyst and microchannel reactors improve efficiency and cost of the process.

New Device Modulates Visible Light with the Smallest Footprint and Lowest Power Consumption

Columbia researchers are reducing both the size and the power consumption of a visible-spectrum phase modulator, from one millimeter to 10 microns.

Cleaner Water Through Corn

Activated carbon made from corn stover filters 98 percent of a pollutant from water.

Engine Made as a Single Calcium Ion

The engine is approximately 10 billion times smaller than a car engine.

Using Solar Technology to Power Smart Devices Indoors

An already ubiquitous material in outdoor photovoltaic modules could be repurposed for indoor devices with low-capacity batteries.

“Cold Tube” Cools Without Air Conditioning

Chilled panels use less energy than conventional A/C and work in open spaces.

Organic Material for Next-Generation HVAC Technologies

An enhanced polymer could be used for more energy-efficient systems with a smaller carbon footprint.

Ultra-Thin, Energy-Efficient Photodetector Integrated with Gorilla Glass

This could lead to the commercial development of smart glass, with applications ranging from imaging to advanced robotics.

High-Capacity Optical Data Storage Disk

Using gold nanomaterials, this disk can hold data securely for more than 600 years.

Synapse-Like Phototransistor

The technology could help computers process visual information more like the human brain.

Next-Generation Computer Chip Has Two Heads

The chip combines two functions — logic operations and data storage — into a single architecture, paving the way to more efficient devices.

Smart Window Improves Energy Efficiency of Buildings

A customizable smart window harnesses and manipulates solar power to save energy and cut costs.

Wearable Cooling and Heating Patch

The patch could serve as a personal thermostat and save energy.

Spin Capacitor for Energy-Efficient Electronics

The capacitor could enable a new generation of electronics that will require less power and generate less heat.

Relaxor Piezoelectric Single-Crystal Multilayer Stacks for Energy Harvesting Transducers (RPSEHT)

Applications include powering portable electronic devices and sensors, and harvesting waste mechanical energy for aircraft, automobile, and other transportation equipment.

Shape Sensing Innovations Dramatically Improve Structural Design Tools

These advances are useful for transportation, infrastructure, and aerospace.

Potassium-Oxygen Battery Stores Clean Energy

Researchers have developed a more efficient, more reliable potassium-oxygen battery with a cathode that stores the energy produced by a chemical reaction in a metal-oxygen or metal-air battery....

Chip Converts Wasted Heat to Usable Energy

Car engines, laptop computers, cellphones, and refrigerators all heat up with overuse. That heat can be captured and turned into energy using a method that produces electricity from heat. The...

Module or Discrete Power?

Engineers today are feeling the pressure to get more done in less time, be experts in multiple disciplines, and use their resources more efficiently to maximize profits. This environment is shifting the way...

Tiny Device Speeds up Memory While Saving Power

Smart objects are required to store and retrieve massive amounts of data quickly without consuming too much power. Millions of new memory cells could be part of a computer chip and provide that...

Combustion Gas Heat Exchanger

Two very challenging problems facing the U.S. and the world are energy security and global climate change, largely due to dependence on fossil fuels. Cost-effective technologies have been developed that are...

Design of an Energy-Efficient Critical Angle Lens Reflector

The critical angle lens reflector has commercial applications that supersede ordinary mirrored reflectors. The physics of the critical angle lens reflector are based on the optics...

Thin-Film System Converts Heat from Electronics into Energy

Nearly 70 percent of the energy produced in the United States each year is wasted as heat. Much of that heat is less than 100 °C and emanates from things like computers, cars, or...

Generating Electrical Power from Waste Heat

Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy; however, converting heat into electrical power is not as easy. To address this issue, a tiny silicon-based device was developed that can...

Advances in Laser Welding Technology

There have been many changes in laser technology over the past 30 years. With each advancement comes new challenges and opportunities. The CO₂ laser with 10-micron wavelength was king for many...

Lightweighting in Aerospace Component and System Design

Lightweighting design is an extensively explored and utilized concept in many industries, especially in aerospace applications, and is associated with the green aviation concept. The...