the high level of commitment to ITO—or
installed machinery—that one finds in the
LCD segment. For TVs and larger OLED
lighting panels, the areas involved add up
to quite large amounts of conductive coatings consumed per panel, which is another
reason that OLEDs represent an important
opportunity for conductive coatings makers. There is plenty of skepticism in the industry about whether large panels—TVs or
lighting—will ever succeed in the market;
some believe they present too many technical problems, so there are probably some
substantial risks involved for conductive
coatings firms. However, Samsung and LG,
both recently exhibited 55-inch OLED TVs
at the annual Consumer Electronics Show,
and while neither disclosed the exact cost
of these big-format products, both indicated they would be much less expensive
that previous OLED TVs commercialized,
and both are publicly projecting a rapid
rise in sales over the next five years.
ductive polymer and nanosilver transparent coatings have taken a small share of
the ITO transparent electrode market in
the past couple of years should be encouraging to developers and suppliers of novel
conductive coatings technologies.
In fact, incorporation of nanomaterials
is one of the most exciting trends in the advanced coatings materials space. These materials still have a long way to go in terms
of product development, but not only may
nanomaterials potentially enhance the performance of conductive coatings, they may
also help reduce manufacturing and/or materials costs, preferably both, in several applications. More importantly, because
“conductive nanocoatings” are clearly still
in the early phases of their evolution, there
remains considerable room for innovation
to establish valuable intellectual property
positions.
Revenues available to firms from the
“conductive nanocoatings” space will soon
become large enough to attract the atten-
tion of both large specialty chemical com-
panies and hopeful start-ups. By 2016, an-
nual revenues from nanometal coatings are
expected to reach $665 million, growing to
$1.4 billion by 2019. The biggest opportu-
nity for nanometallic coatings will be in the
ITO-replacement market, where nanosilver
will take the lead.
Satisfying Demand for
Conductive Coatings with New
Materials – The Rise of
Nanocoatings
The vast majority of the revenues generated in the conductive coating space over
the next eight years will be made with conventional materials that at worst may need
some technical upgrading or some market
repositioning. None of the markets described above are expected to completely
throw off the old guard in conductive materials and embrace new ones. By way of a
measure of the importance of conventional
materials, NanoMarkets projections suggest that 97 percent of the revenues from
conductive materials will come from conventional materials in 2012, and that their
share will still be very significant— 84 percent—by the end of the forecast period.
However, this reduction is a substantial
decline, and it is largely a result of the rise
of nanomaterials and conductive polymers
that has broadened the choice of materials
beyond conventional metals and carbon.
Although the potential for nanomaterials
have been regularly discussed in the literature for many years, real signs of opportunities for these materials are now
appearing in the conductive coatings
space. For example, the fact that both con-
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