Cornell University

Energy harvester rolls to market production

A new concept becomes proven reality, as MicroGen's nanotechnology-based energy harvester - researched and developed by the company at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) - begins commercial-scale production this summer.

Piezoelectric energy harvesting: Developments, challenges, future

The days when piezoelectric energy harvesting was considered unreliable and had low power output are long gone. Hand in hand with the development of ultra low power electronics, energy harvesters have been drastically improving also.

Ordered catalyst boosts fuel cell output at lower cost

Fuel cells, which convert fuel directly into electricity without burning it, promise a less polluted future where cars run on pure hydrogen and exhaust nothing but water vapor. But the catalysts that make them work are still "sluggish" and worse, expensive.

XTRION N.V. completes MicroGen series A round

MicroGen Systems, Inc. has announced that XTRION N.V. completed the first investment round of the company.

Tighter stitching means better graphene, scientists say

The quality of this "stitching" -- the boundaries at which graphene crystals grow together and form sheets -- is just as important as the size of the crystals themselves, which scientists had previously thought held the key to making better graphene.

NYSERDA awards $1.2M contract to MicroGen Systems, Inc.

NYSERDA has awarded $1,200,000 to MicroGen Systems, Inc. to commercialize its energy harvesters.

Composite collaboration leads to faster plastic electronics

Prof. Aram Amassian's group collaborates with Imperial College scientists to develop faster organic thin-film transistors.

'Tunable' metal nanostructures for fuel cells, batteries, solar energy

Chemists have now developed a way to make porous metal films with up to 1,000 times the electrical conductivity offered by previous methods.

The Cornell Center spring 2012 JumpStart project recipients

The Cornell Center for Materials Research JumpStart program is designed to assist New York State small businesses develop and improve their products through university collaborations; the ultimate goal being revenue growth and job creation.

Giant piezoelectric effect to improve energy harvesting devices

Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State are part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from universities and national laboratories across the U.S. who have fabricated piezoelectric thin films with record-setting properties.

Microfabrication breakthrough for piezoelectric material

Integrating a complex, single-crystal material with "giant" piezoelectric properties onto silicon, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and physicists can fabricate low-voltage, near-nanoscale electromechanical devices that could lead to improvements in high-resolution 3-D imaging, signal processing, communications, energy harvesting, sensing, and actuators for nanopositioning devices, among others.

Researchers create transistors from natural cotton fibers

Smarter, more functional clothing incorporating electronics may be possible in the near future, according to a study co-authored by Cornell fiber scientist Juan Hinestroza

Development of self charging batteries from ambient vibration

MicroGen Systems is developing a global, scalable, green, renewable energy power source.

Vibrations from wind make electricity

The Vibro-Wind Research Group, led by Frank Moon, is working on an efficient, low-cost method of converting vibrations from wind energy to electricity.

Single-crystal films could advance solar cells

Cornell researchers have developed a new method to create a patterned single-crystal thin film of semiconductor material that could lead to more efficient photovoltaic cells and batteries.

Flextech Alliance awards grant to Corning Incorporated

Flextech Alliance awards grant to Corning Incorporated to develop commercially viable methods for continuous printed electronic manufacturing on flexible glass substrates.

New molecular framework could lead to flexible solar cells

A team at Cornell University led by William Dichtel, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology, has discovered a simple process for building an organic molecular framework that could pave the way for the development of more economical, flexible and versatile solar cells.

New molecular framework could lead to flexible solar cells

Organic materials have long been recognized as having potential to create thin, flexible and low-cost photovoltaic devices, but it has been proven difficult to organize their component molecules reliably into ordered structures likely to maximize device performance.

Cotton clothing to produce power

The laboratory of Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design at Cornell University, has developed cotton threads that can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire can, yet remain light and comfortable enough to give a whole new meaning to multi-use garments.