Nanotechnology Sees Big Growth in Products and Applications

BCC Research

Nanotechnology applications promise to impact many sectors of the global economy, as evidenced by double-digit growth rates of nanomaterials, nanotools, and nanodevices. BCC Research reveals in its new report that continuing moderate growth of the U.S. and world economies should significantly expand the nanotechnology industry.

Nanotechnology applications are defined comprehensively as the creation and use of materials, devices and systems through the manipulation of matter at scales of less than 100 nanometers.

The global nanotechnology market should reach $90.5 billion by 2021 from $39.2 billion in 2016, growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.2%. 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.

Nanomaterials, particularly nanoparticles and nanoscale thin films, dominated the market in 2015, accounting for 83.3% of the market. Nanotools totaled 16.6% of the market and nanodevices the remainder. By 2021, nanomaterials’ market share is expected to increase to 85.3%, while nanotools’ share shrinks to 14.5%, and nanodevices’ share increases slightly from 0.1% to 0.2%.

The largest end-user markets for nanotechnology application in 2015 were environmental applications (38.8% of the total market), electronics (22.4%), and consumer applications (21.1%). Biomedical, consumer, and electronics applications should demonstrate the highest projected CAGR rates (i.e., 29.9%, 27.9%, and 20.5%, respectively) during the forecast period.