Available Technologies by Category
A Multi-Stage Cascade Air Conditioning and Refrigeration System Using Thermally Responsive Liquids
  • Innovative technology using thermally responsive liquids in multiple stages enhances air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
  • Currently at proof-of-concept stage, it aims to improve temperature and humidity control efficiency.
  • Offers eco-friendly cooling and dehumidification with zero global warming potential, targeting residential, commercial, and data center applications.
9284
Scalable Manufacturing Approach of Graded Polymer Thin Film Has Potential for Widespread Use
  • Combines slot die coating with a custom roll-to-roll imaging system to allow for efficient, rapid, and scalable fabrication of high-quality gradient thin films.
  • An improved manufacturing process over existing techniques because it uses broad material combinations and yields higher quality patterned thin films.
  • Incorporates multiple materials to increase the application of patterned thin films across industries, including microelectronics, energy technologies, and environmental systems.
8994
Tunable Membrane-Based Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery
  • Customizable membrane structure and surface properties provide selective removal of contaminants of emerging concerns (CEC) and recovery of valuable components.
  • An enlarged membrane surface area, combined with a gutter effect from the interlayer, results in nearly double the water permeability of current filtration membranes.
  • Achieves high-performance recovery of essential nutrients/fertilizers that are free of CECs.
8633
Tunable MEMs Gas Sensor Improves Selectivity and Sensitivity
  • Versatile: Customizes MEMS chemical sensors, compatible with a variety of sensing materials, allowing for the detection of numerous gas-phase analytes
  • Easy to manufacture: Uses batch-fabricated sensors compatible with COTS electronics
  • Highly sensitive: Offers sub parts-per-million detection limits for volatile organic compounds
  • Enhanced selectivity: Combines gravimetric and impedimetric responses to demonstrate enhanced discrimination between multiple VOCs
  • Powerful: Enables the simultaneous observation of both mass loading and dielectric changes in polymeric sensing films upon sorption of an analyte
  • Innovative: Uses the transient response characteristics of a sensor response to a gated exposure event, rather than steady-state sensor data
8269, 8987
Catalyst for Degradation of Traditional PET
  • Degradation of PET products lead to less landfill waste.
  • The technology has applications in bio-based packaging to eliminate single-use plastics.
  • Degradation does not give rise to microplastics, which are hazardous.
8960
Plasma-Activated Catalytic Air Purifier Cleans Enclosed Spaces
  • This plasma-activated catalytic air purifier can be used to clean enclosed spaces, such as aircraft, hospitals, and classrooms, while mitigating hazardous gas-phase byproducts. 
  • The air purifier can be used synergistically with UV diode lasers and UV lamps, providing additional contaminant destruction pathways while lowering the potential for dielectric breakdown and plasma formation.
  • This comprehensive technology is effective for germicide and sterilization activities as well as for hydroxyl-radical production and ozone removal in a wide variety of indoor environments.
8536
Deployable Critical Active Learning (DECAL) System Offers Better Characterization for Improved Diagnostics and Imaging
  • The deployable critical active learning (DECAL) system’s bi-modal interface enables better characterization with large training sets that generate more accurate output for higher precision.
  • The algorithm used during the initialization period creates a framework that can be expanded and generalized to any data method and application.
  •  The DECAL algorithm samples uniquely important, unlabeled data to aid existing active learning systems in generalizing more quickly, providing faster diagnosis statistics.
9099
Improved Electrically Driven Temperature Swing Adsorption (ETSA) System for Faster, More Productive Direct Air Capture of Carbon Dioxide
  • This electrically driven temperature swing adsorption (ETSA) system uses sorbent-coated carbon fibers that exhibit Joule heating and rapid temperature swings for improved CO2 direct air capture (DAC).
  • Over ten times faster temperature controls and six times faster CO2 desorption rate in ETSA than temperature swing adsorption (TSA) operation under the same DAC condition
  • The dual-layered structure composed of a Joule heating core and CO2 adsorbing coating layer result in a larger amount of CO2 chemisorption.
9063
Quantitative, Performance-Driven Framework for Optimal Desalination Architectures and Energy Subsystems
  • Incorporate and simultaneously compare attributes of multiple types of both desalting systems and energy subsystems for optimal system architectures
  • Assess parameters that impact overall cost to discover complete architectures that would not have been discoverable using traditional methods.
  • Focus on renewable energy subsystems such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and others to create complete desalination architectures that are cleaner and more water efficient than their conventional counterparts. 
9055
Self-Driven, Reusable, Scalable Technique for Harvesting Microalgae with Porous Superabsorbent Polymer
  • Fast: The optimized pore structure of the PSAP beads allows fast and selective absorption of water, greatly reducing standard processing time.
  • Cost effective: Microalgae harvesting with PSAP beads cuts costs, as it does not require any complex instrument and little training is needed to operate the harvesting procedures.
  • Scalable: PSAP beads can be produced in large quantities at a significantly lower cost than conventional harvesting tools.
8849
Buoyant Platform Assembly Improves PCM Thermal Management
  • Enhances solidification: Incorporating highly localized agitation via a stirring whip rod, this technology seeds solidification to improve this often-arduous phase of PCM thermal cycling. 
  • Prevents scale build-up: This technology reduces the instance of sheets of solid PCM forming on the heat sink. The high-frequency, extensible whip rod orbits around the passageway to facilitate nucleation (creating improved solidification), while preventing scale build-up on the interior passageway surfaces. 
  • Customizable: The structural design allows the platform to be tailored to the effective density of the PCM material, enabling it to stay between the liquid and solid phases. 
8835
Hybrid Molecular Catalysts: A New Blueprint for Catalyst Design, Preparation, and Testing
  • Attachment of molecular catalysts to solid supports can lead to new reactivity not seen under homogeneous conditions
  • At an optimal atomic layer deposition (ALD) layer thickness, the molecular catalyst remains highly active while still being resistant to surface detachment and subsequent deactivation
  • Catalyst separation and recovery achieved via a simple filtering and washing process rather than energy- and time-intensive distillation or re-crystallization processes
  • In addition to the simple filter-and-wash process mentioned above, encapsulation requires only about 10 reaction cycles, making this process technologically and economically viable for large-scale manufacturing
8537
Vapor Phase Infiltration Produces Solar Cells with Greater Thermal Stability
  • Stability: Decreasing spiro-OMeTAD crystallization improves thermal stability of hole transport layers within perovskite solar cells (PSCs) 
  • Longevity: Eliminating the main cause of PSCs’ operational degradation increases the overall product lifespan
  • Efficiency: Preventing the delamination of the layers transporting electronic charge has doubled the power conversion efficiency of modified PSCs
9034
Recirculation System for Aerosol Collectors Maximizes Particle Concentration for Improved Pathogen Detection
  • Enhanced detection: Continuously recirculated collection buffer increases the concentration of targeted particles collected and improves detection of pathogens 
  • Increased sampled air volume: Recirculating the buffer enables running the system for longer periods of time and with larger volumes of air to improve pathogen detection in entire buildings
  • Increased control: Users have active control of the volume of fluid introduced during collection via the system’s recharge pump
8903
Flexible Power Generation with Negative Carbon Emissions
  • Energy security: This system enables the continued use of low-cost domestic fuel (i.e., natural gas) for electricity generation and increases the reliability of U.S. electricity production.
  • Environmental protection: Flexible carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems can achieve high CO2 capture rates from flue gas. For example, with this system a power generator could shift the times it exports electricity to the grid, allowing the power generator and CCS plant to operate under steady-state conditions and with reduced emissions.
  • Reduced costs: The cost of a net-zero carbon electricity system is lowered by providing dispatchable power to a high-VRE grid.
8834
Germination Platform for Cost-Effective Plant Production
  • Cost effective: Simply and inexpensively produces large numbers of high-quality plants from somatic embryogenesis
  • Convenient: Permits easy handling and transport of germinated propagule
  • Practical: Produces high-quality straight roots
6888
Zeolitic Nanotubes for Advanced Chemical Catalysis and Separation
  • Streamlined: Allows for faster access into and out of zeolite pores without compromising key characteristics of conventional zeolites
  • Advanced: Supports a single central mesoporous channel even after calcination of the organic structure directing agents
  • Robust: Consists of both micropores and mesopores with the potential to enable a variety of separation and catalytic properties.
8407, 8922
Novel Nanofiltration (NF) Membrane Optimizing Concurrent Nutrient Recovery and Micropollutant Removal
  • Effective: Targets mainstream domestic wastewater to recover a greater volume (>30%) of valuable nutrients than the current industry nutrient recovery technology focused on side streams
  • Safer: Reduces EMPs in the fit-for-purpose water used in agricultural irrigation, minimizing the contaminants charge while permitting a lower rejection rate of valuable nutrients
8626
Next-Generation Custom-Fit Reusable Mask for Respiratory Protection
  • Aims to eliminate fit-testing: Designed to remove the expensive and time-consuming federal (i.e., OSHA) mandate for annual fit-testing for workplace use
  • Improved fit: Adapts to fit specific facial features, increasing comfort and enhancing efficacy and potentially eliminating face-seal leakage to enhance performance
  • Reusable: Withstands cleaning and decontamination
6635
Using Soy Proteins to Reduce Costs of Dewatering of Fibrous Sludge
  • Cost-effective: Decreases costs by 80% compared to using 100% CPAM
  • Greater price stability: Experiences much less price fluctuation than the hydrocarbon feedstock from which CPAM is manufactured
  • More environmentally friendly: Reduces the mass and volume of sludge requiring disposal and is a nonpetroleum-based option
6128