Expoquimia 2021, an international industrial event dedicated to innovation in chemistry and related technologies, is taking place these days (14-17 September) in Barcelona. The ICN2 and GraphCAT, the Graphene Community of Catalonia, are participating in the event, which has also been the occasion to present the newly-created spin-off company Cooling Photonics.
The 19th edition of Expoquimia, an international gathering of the chemistry industrial sector that takes place every three years in Barcelona, has kicked off on Tuesday 14 at the Fira de L´Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona). The event, which is combined with Equiplast and Eurosurfas, includes a large showroom for exhibitors and a rich programme of conferences and workshops on topics spanning new technologies for sustainability and circular economy, new materials and smart surfaces, pharma-chemistry, automation and digitalization in chemistry industry, to mention a few.
The ICN2 is taking part in this event as a member of the GraphCAT Community, which has been created with the aim to bring together local and international experts in cutting-edge graphene technologies and establish Catalonia as an international reference in graphene research, development and innovation. Key to GraphCAT’s mission is facilitating the transfer of technology to industry. With this goal, it is holding a space within the Tech Transfer area of Expoquimia 2021, where visitors can discover more about some of the innovative material technologies developed by the members of the GraphCAT consortium and collaborations with industrial partners can be established. At this meeting point, you can find Dr Claudia Nieva, Business Developer at the ICN2, Clara Barreneche, Head of Innovation & Business Development of BIST, Ylenia Almar, Project Manager of GraphCAT, Dr Virginia Greco, from the ICN2 Marketing and Communication Department, and Dr Marta Sans, Project Manager for the Graphene Flagship at ICFO.
GraphCAT is formed by ten non-profit research institutes –ICN2, ICFO, IREC, IFAE, UAB, IDIBAPS, EURECAT, IMB-CNM, IMIM and BIST— and also counts on other associate members and collaborators that are part of the Catalan graphene ecosystem. It is currently focusing efforts on four areas of application: Biomedical Devices, Si-CMOS integration, Materials and Membranes, Energy. An overview of GraphCAT’s mission and activities has been given on Wednesday 15 at Expoquímia 2021 by Àlex Árgemi, Head of Marketing and Communication at the ICN2, in a talk titled “GraphCAT: Graphene Technologies in Catalonia”. Today, Thursday 16, Dr. Alastair Cunningham, Project Portfolio Manager at ICFO, will talk more about the technology transfer effort of GraphCAT in his presentation about “Accelerating the Commercial Trajectory of Graphene”.
This event was also a great stage to present the formation of Cooling Photonics, a new spin-off company springing from a research carried out at the ICN2, by the Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures Group, led by ICREA Prof. Clivia Sotomayor Torres. The technology put forward by the company, which was developed mainly by senior researcher Dr Juliana Jaramillo Fernández, provides passive cooling solutions without energy consumption or carbon emissions. A nano-fabricated coating material can be spread on any surface hotter than the ambient, allowing the dissipation of heat in form of infrared radiation and, thus, temperature decrease.
Javier Achiaga, CEO of Cooling Photonics, Antonio Cuenca, COO, and Dr Juliana Jaramillo presented the company, the technology and its applications in a talk at Expoquimia 2021.
Watch this short video about GraphCAT at Expoquimia 2021: