This report is the result of more than a decade of ongoing market research. IDTechEx launched the first version of the report on CNTs and graphene in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and has been tracking the industries ever since. IDTechEx has interviewed hundreds of companies across the value chain to provide the most comprehensive view of the market.
IDTechEx has extensive in-depth coverage of many end-use markets for these materials, including a series of independent reports on such topics including energy storage, composites, conductive inks, flexible electronics, and more. This expertise on the end-use markets enables us to better understand the landscape in which these materials compete in and provide realistic outlooks.
Graphene: Finally moving out of the lab and into the market
Graphene-related materials are progressing through their own hype curve. The commercialization has been making steady progress and IDTechEx expect the graphene market to significantly grow over the next decade.
- Graphene-related materials take a wide range of types, grades and forms, each with their own commercial outlook. There is some progression towards standardisation and safety legislation/qualification, but this challenge still prevails. Extensive analysis and benchmarking studies are shown in the report across the complete range of graphene materials.
- Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP), graphene oxide (GO), and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) are the closest forms to significant commercial uptake. There are increasing signs that we are now in the rapid growth phase, with significant applications observed for polymer composites for automotive, heatspreaders for smartphones, industrial elastomers, anti-corrosion coatings and many more.
- There is no “best graphene” with each application having different multifunctional requirements, the end-users now accept that the winning materials cannot be determined a priori as final application-level results are influenced by many parameters such as graphene morphology and purity. Players understand there is key know-how in both dispersing graphene and introducing valuable functionality, companies are competing to fill that crucial stage of the value chain (externally and in-house) to provide a range of intermediate products.
- There are numerous strengths and weaknesses to the different graphene production processes with top-down approaches of liquid phase exfoliation and oxidation-reduction processes dominant. The report explores these processes in detail and also explores emerging alternatives looking to use alternate feedstocks, improve the efficiency and/or enhance the final product.
- There are a very large number of graphene manufacturers, which will not be the case in the long term as major success will result in consolidation – with the first signs having been reported. This report tracks the manufacturers’ progress in detail including their revenue, profitability, capacity, price, properties, partnerships and more. China has become a significant territory in terms of production capacity and research, which is explored throughout the report.
- Our data suggest that revenue for graphene companies has been rising steadily for many years and this will accelerate as we pass through this inflection point. The rise, however, has not always been accompanied with increasing profit. Indeed, the industry, as a whole, is still loss making with only a handful of profitable companies and certainly some disillusionment arising as a result. Public and private funding still plays an important part of this nascent industry; this is tracked and discussed within the market report.
- Advanced materials often suffer from being a material push rather than a market pull. The report looks at key sectors in detail to understand some of the business cases solving unmet needs. Market drivers include the necessity for improved thermal management, sustainability, lightweighting, product lifetime, and more.
- With such an extensive potential application list, a key question is: where will there be success? Composites, energy storage, concrete, coatings, thermal management, and textiles all represent a very large potential and promising results have been seen. An outlook on the revenue and volume progression can be seen in the chart below and this roadmap is discussed in detail throughout the report.
Graphene Market and 2D Materials Assessment 2024-2034. We forecast that the graphene market will exceed US$1.6bn by 2034. Source IDTechEx
- Graphene films and wafers, typically grown via a CVD process, have had a very different history and outlook. Given the obvious potential, transistors and TCFs were extensively targeted, but the lack of band gap and high-performance incumbent materials challenges has led to an inevitable realisation of limitations. However, with manufacturing improvements and further developments, commercial successes are being observed mostly for sensors and optoelectronic applications. Expansions are being observed and the next 10-years looks very promising for certain key end-user markets.
What about 2D materials beyond graphene?
Beyond graphene there is an emerging family of 2D materials, each with unique properties and potential across a range of commercial applications. Nearly all are at a very early-stage of development. IDTechEx provides a detailed assessment and outlook with a specific focus on boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides, MXenes, and Xenes. Key technical progressions, prospective market applications, profiles of early-stage commercial companies, and detailed insights are all included within the report.
What about other advanced carbons?
Graphene is not the first nanocarbon, or indeed nanomaterial, to emerge out of the lab and, given that most applications see graphene used as an additive, understanding the competitive market is essential. Carbon black is the incumbent conductive carbon powder, of which there are numerous grades, and presents a likely long-term future for GNPs and rGO if high-volume killer applications are found. For a mature sector like this, the number of manufacturers is consolidated, a global presence established, and the margins significantly reduced.
There is also a lot to be learned from the commercial progression of multi-walled and single-walled carbon nanotubes. MWCNTs went through a premature period of capacity expansion when finding some niche and modest applications, and it is only in the last few years that the significant revenues and next stages of expansion are beginning to emerge, owing to their role in the cathode of lithium-ion batteries; meanwhile, SWCNTs hold much promise but have yet to find their key commercial use-case. This report covers these comparative markets in detail.
Source: idtechex.com