‘Cary Pint’

New method to fashion cheap, small carbon nanotubes ‘could change the world,’ Pint says

May. 24, 2018—Imagine a box you plug into the wall that cleans your toxic air and pays you cash. That’s essentially what Vanderbilt University researchers produced after discovering the blueprint for turning the carbon dioxide into the most valuable material ever sold – carbon nanotubes with small diameters. Carbon nanotubes are supermaterials that can be stronger than...

Engineer’s ultrathin device harvests electricity from human motion

Jul. 21, 2017—Imagine slipping into a jacket, shirt or skirt that powers your cell phone, fitness tracker and other personal electronic devices as you walk, wave and even when you are sitting down. A new, ultrathin energy harvesting system developed at Vanderbilt University’s Nanomaterials and Energy Devices Laboratory has the potential to do just that. Based on...

Novel nanotube approach earns grad student coveted spot in ORNL innovation program

May. 18, 2017—An interdisciplinary materials science graduate student has been selected for a prestigious entrepreneurship program to scale and commercialize a revolutionary method of carbon nanotube production. Anna Douglas is one of five entrepreneurs selected for the inaugural cohort of the Department of Energy Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The accelerator program includes...

New AAU energy research webpage features VU engineering research

Feb. 8, 2017—Cary Pint, right, Andrew Westover and Nitin Muralidharan, who is holding the prototype junkyard battery they created in his left hand. He and Westover are holding bottles of the common household chemicals used in the process. (Vanderbilt University) Vanderbilt researchers who “MacGyvered” metal junkyard scraps and common household chemicals into high-performance batteries are featured in...

Quantum dots made from fool’s gold boost battery performance

Nov. 11, 2015— Anna Douglas holding one of the batteries that she has modified by adding millions of quantum dots made from iron pyrite, fool’s gold. (John Russell / Vanderbilt) If you add quantum dots – nanocrystals 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair – to a smartphone battery it will charge in 30...

Cary Pint named to ’20 Under 40’ by American Society for Engineering Education

Sep. 23, 2014—Creating products that also function as ‘energy depots’ offers tremendous potential because “there are so many materials and technologies where energy storage can be integrated,” says Cary Pint. Pint, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Nanomaterials and Energy Devices Laboratory at Vanderbilt University, was named to the American Society for Engineering Education’s...

Liberating devices from their power cords

May. 19, 2014—Close-up of structural supercapacitor. (Joe Howell / Vanderbilt) Imagine a future in which our electrical gadgets are no longer limited by plugs and external power sources. This intriguing prospect is one of the reasons for the current interest in building the capacity to store electrical energy directly into a wide range of products, such as...