Innovations

Making a difference through innovative research

Princeton researchers are innovators in the areas that impact lives, from health care to energy to the environment and more. Browse selected innovations below. To see all technologies available for licensing from Princeton, visit the Office of Technology Licensing website to search our invention database.

Use the filters below to explore news stories by Impact Area, Funding Source and/or Innovation Year.

  • Princeton researchers have created a new type of hydrogel that is recyclable, yet still tough and stable enough for practical use (and reuse).

    As flexible networks of polymer chains suffused by water, hydrogels possess excellent properties including softness, elasticity and biocompatibility. Accordingly, the squishy materials have already found widespread use as contact lenses and wound dressings. Hydrogels also hold great promise for drug delivery systems, agriculture and food packaging, among other applications.

  • Almost 2.3 billion people do not have toilets, and about 4 billion people still lack access to safely managed sanitation. Public toilets are critical in the fight against the spread of diseases, and yet public toilet design has not changed in the last 200 years. Today’s public toilets can be claustrophobic and inaccessible, difficult to clean and maintain, feel unsafe, and are not user friendly, especially for women, children, the disabled and senior citizens.

    Energy & CleanTech
    2023
  • The design fluidly combines two common modes of robot mobility: legs and wheels. The robots’ unique configuration allows them to strategically navigate curbs, stairs and irregular terrain.

    Energy & CleanTech
    2023
  • Most heating and cooling systems adjust the temperature of a room’s air, but with recent technological advances, comfort can be achieved more efficiently by responding to additional factors such as humidity, air speed, clothing, metabolic rate and radiant temperature. This last factor, radiant temperature, describes the warmth or coolness of surfaces such as windows, floors, desks and chairs.

    Energy & CleanTech
    2023
  • The approach, called DataMUX, could reduce energy consumption and make powerful computing more widely available.

    Computer Science & Information Technology
    2023
  • Renewable electricity is on track to replace fossil fuels to decarbonize many industries, but the supply of lithium for batteries and electric vehicles falls short of meeting its rapidly increasing demand.

    Energy & CleanTech
    2023
  • Superconducting ink — a single-molecule-thin substance that conducts electricity without resistance — has a wide range of potential applications, from a thin bandage that measures heart rate to a phone made from a thin piece of film worn around the wrist. However, previous methods for creating this material have not lived up to expectations.

    Chemistry,Quantum Computing & Electrical Engineering
    2023
  • Research engineers from Princeton and the Indian Institute of Science have developed a protocol for obtaining high yields of oxygen by splitting water into its core ingredients, hydrogen and oxygen. Unlike today’s method of generating oxygen, this new industrial technology employs inexpensive iron and nickel catalysts combined with renewable electricity from solar, wind or other sources to break the bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms, and then join two oxygen atoms to produce oxygen gas.

    Energy & CleanTech
    2023
  • The protein, called fibronectin, is part of a large network of proteins and other molecules that make up the extracellular matrix, which supports and gives structure to the organs and tissues in the body.

    Medical Devices & Diagnostics
    2023
  • The team’s solution involves creating a magnetic-free zone – an area where all magnetic fields cancel each other out – in front of the mirrors to guide particles away from the reflective surfaces and into a collection area. The solution, created by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory scientists, is highly cost-effective, simple, and could increase efficiency by reducing the need to clean and replace dirty or blistered mirrors.

    Engineering,Quantum Computing & Electrical Engineering
    2023