US Patent Issued to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania on March 18 for "Systems and methods for photophoretic propulsion for flight" (Pennsylvania Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,252,598, issued on March 18, was assigned to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

"Systems and methods for photophoretic propulsion for flight" was invented by Igor Bargatin (Wynnewood, Pa.), Zhipeng Lu (Philadelphia) and Mohsen Azadi (Philadelphia).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods for achieving levitation via a photophoretic effect are provided. In certain embodiments, a structure of ultralight materials is provided, for example a BoPET film and carbon nanotubes and has a top and bottom side, made of two separate materials. When the bottom side is illuminated by light at certain intensity, it ...