GLEN ALLEN, VA /Marketwire/ -- NanoMarkets, a Virginia-based analyst firm, has just issued a new report that predicts a $1.7 billion market opportunity for carbon-based inks, pastes, and coatings for electronics applications. The report notes that, while silver grabs most of the headlines in printed electronics, carbon is a big business opportunity not only as a supporting player but also in its own right. And the new carbon nanomaterials—carbon nanotubes and graphene—promise to offer silver a run for its money, even in the applications where silver is currently dominant.
While NanoMarkets' new report projects that conventional carbon materials will remain dominant over the next several years, carbon nanotubes are beginning to emerge, and graphene will also emerge within just a few years. These two materials will comprise close to 50% of the total carbon materials market in 2017 because they not only enhance the performance of conventional carbon but also become competitive with silver in some applications, such as RFID antennas.
Traditional thick-film applications, making up almost 40% of the market in 2010, will fall in significance in favor of high-growth energy-related applications, such as photovoltaics, lead-carbon ultra-batteries, and supercapacitors, over the next two to three years. By 2017, NanoMarkets sees these three applications as comprising almost 60% of the market for carbon-based inks, pastes and coatings. And the high conductivity of carbon nanotubes and graphene will provide a new, potentially lower-cost alternative to costly silver and ITO. Transparent conductive applications will comprise almost 10% of the carbon market by 2017.
About the Report
The new report from NanoMarkets contains the firm's in-depth analysis and forecasts for carbon inks, pastes, and coatings for electronics applications, broken out by traditional thick-film electronics applications, RFID antennas, EMI/RFI and antistatic coatings, photovoltaics, displays, OLED lighting, supercapacitors, lead-carbon ultra-batteries, thin-film and printable batteries, and printed sensors. The report analyzes both the technical and business issues, such as identifying what these carbon materials have to offer current and emerging end-user markets, what increasing volumes will do for economies of scale, and what other materials will compete with carbon. It also includes an assessment of the market strategies being used by leading firms in the field of carbon for electronics. The report is global in scope and is based on NanoMarkets ongoing research and analysis of advanced materials in emerging energy and electronics markets.
About NanoMarkets
NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities created by developments in advanced materials.