This report offers a detailed analysis of the technological and commercial progress, as well as prospects, of graphene and other 2D materials

 

This report is the result of many years of ongoing research. We launched the first version of our report on CNTs and graphene in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and have been tracking the industries ever since. In addition to the initial research, we have organized business-focused events on this topic ourselves in Europe and USA; we have also attended and/or lectured at multiple relevant non-IDTechEx conferences in Asia, Europe and USA; we have interviewed more than 140 players worldwide; we have delivered masterclasses to business leaders; and we have completed major consulting custom projects. All this gives us an excellent and unrivalled insight into these industries.

 

Another unique point of strength for us is that we have extensive in-depth coverage of the end-use markets for these materials. In fact, we have 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.

 

 

Graphene 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.

 

Nanoplatelets are the closest to commercial success, with many market drivers and factors:

 

 

Furthermore, the market now realizes that there are many graphene materials and not all are equal. Although there is some progression towards standardisation and safety legislation/qualification. Nevertheless, 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 formulation/compounding techniques and conditions.

 

 

Interestingly, and as is now familiar in many industries, China has become the significant territory in terms of nominal production capacity. Its rise to prominence has also made direct liquid phase exfoliation the leading process by share of production capacity.

 

 

This has changed. Graphene platelet prices have fallen and are beginning to converge, for now. The prices will however not settle around a single point, reflecting the diversity of graphene types and giving it a speciality chemical character. Furthermore, suppliers will be reluctant to further cut costs out of fear of premature commoditization, although the continuation of this trend has an air of inevitability to it. In the long term, IDTechEx anticipates significant consolidation in the number graphene manufacturers over the next decade.

 

 

 

This is no surprise, but is likely to soon change. Experience has demonstrated that new materials take years, if not decades, to commercialize. Graphene is also no exception therefore this behaviour is in our view a natural part of growth process of the industry.

 

 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt by the graphene industry in delaying scale-ups, development trials, and general operations. This may be irreversibly consequential for some, but for many it will just delay the commercial success.

 

 

Graphene films and wafers have had a very different history and outlook. Given the obvious potential, certain key applications were initially targeted including transistor and TCFs, however the lack of band gap and high-performance incumbent materials coupled with manufacturing 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.

 

 

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.

 

 

Graphene is not the first nanocarbon or indeed nanomaterial additive to emerge out of the lab; throughout the report key benchmarking studies are given against competitive materials. There is also a lot to be learnt from the materials that have gone before; information is provided on the commercial progression of multi-walled and single-walled carbon nanotubes. MWCNTs went through a premature period of capacity expansion and it is only in the last few years that the significant revenues and next stages of expansion are beginning to emerge.

 

This report provides the following:

 

Introduction and business dynamics/trends

 

Ten-year segmented market forecasts

 

This report has dedicated chapters for key end-use applications. End-use applications include energy storage (lithium-ion, silicon anode, LiS, supercapacitors and other); polymer composites (mechanically-enhanced, permeation-enhanced, electrically conductive, thermally conductive, EMI shielding, 3D printing filaments, tires, other); inks and coatings (anti-corrosion coating, RFID antenna, other); transistors; transparent conductive films; sensors; thermal interface materials; concrete & asphalt; e-textiles; metal matrix composites; filtration; and more.

 

IDTechEx has interviewed more than 150 companies for this analysis. This report includes a large number of key company profiles and updates for the reader.

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