2010 Nanotechnology Research Review

Report Highlights

• The global market for carbon nanotube grades—comprising commodity (MWNTs) and specialty single- walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), few-walled carbon nanotubes (FWNTs)—generated an estimated $100 million in revenues in 2009. This market is projected to grow over the next 5 years at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 58.9%, reaching more than $1 billion by 2014.  The CNT commodity grade will provide by far the biggest technology push driven especially by polymer composites. 
  
• BCC estimates the global market for nanotechnology products at about $15.7 billion in 2010, growing to approximately $26.7 billion by 2015, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1% from 2010 through 2015.  This figure includes well-established commercial nanomaterials applications, such as nanoparticle-based sunscreen products and nanocatalyst thin films for catalytic converters, as well as new technologies, such as nano-thin film solar cells, nanolithographic tools, and nanoscale electronic memory.
  
• Sales of nanofiber-based products are projected to continue growing at a very healthy rate during the next 5 years, driven by further penetration of nanofibers in the above sectors and by various newer, high-tech applications that are entering mainstream commercialization in other fields such as the consumer and medical/biological/ pharmaceutical sectors. The total market for nanofiber products is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.3% through 2015, and at a 37.2% CAGR from 2015 through 2020, reaching nearly $2.2 billion in total revenues by 2020.

FOREWORD

Smaller, faster, better, has been the clarion call for this branch of science that was born complete with its own policy initiative. In 2010 researchers were exploring less, and applying more, which translated into self fueling circles where one enabling technology begat another, and eventually produced a new buzzword not widely mouthed before 2010, that of the fabulous “graphene” (a material so wonderful a sheet of graphene as thick as a piece of cellophane would support the weight of a car, probably 10 cars, if those cars were also made out of graphene).

• Nanotechnology In Medical Applications: The Global Market
• Nanocomposites, Nanoparticles, Nanoclays, And Nanotubes
• Carbon Nanotubes: Technologies And Global Markets
• Nanotechnology: A Realistic Market Assessment
• Nanofibers: Technologies And Developing Markets
• Nanotechnology In Paper Manufacturing: Global Markets 

Senior Editor, BCC Research