A Coruña, September 23, 2024 – The University of A Coruña and the company Resonac Graphite Spain S.A.U. officially presented a new university-business collaboration: the Resonac–UDC Sparking Truth Chair. The Rector of the University of A Coruña, Ricardo Cao, and the President & CEO of Resonac Graphite Business Unit, César Castiñeira, signed the cooperation agreement today to establish the Chair.

One of the main goals of this Chair is the creation of the Energy Transition Systems Research Laboratory (LISTE–Resonac), as well as the development of other research, training, outreach, and knowledge transfer activities.

Both the Laboratory and the Chair will be led by researcher Israel Temprano, who holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of A Coruña and a PhD in Chemistry from Université Laval (Québec, Canada). He has an extensive research career at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Since last year, Temprano has been part of the Interdisciplinary Center for Chemistry and Biology (CICA) at the University of A Coruña, joining through a Beatriz Galindo grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports.

The goal of this laboratory is to develop new materials for energy-related applications. The research will focus on electrochemical processes to implement technologies based on renewable energy sources for generation (such as photovoltaics), storage (batteries and supercapacitors), and transformation (carbon capture and hydrogen generation).

Part of the challenge will be to study different types of batteries in order to improve them, increase their energy storage capacity, and reduce their environmental impact.