Aerogels are a class of advanced porous materials with a huge amount of potential. However, despite being discovered back in the 1930s, this potential has never turned to a booming commercial reality. Since the turn of the century there has been significant growth, but the industry has once again stalled before greater growth.

Like many advanced materials, there is a significant learning curve to progress promising lab results to real commercial products. This includes a learning experience from the manufacturer, for cost-effective high-volume production, and a learning experience for the end-user, to establish the value and utilisation of this market entry. IDTechEx have been following this market throughout this learning experience, and the 13th edition of their commercially focussed B2B graphene conference, Graphene & 2D Materials, will be held from 10 - 11 April 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

Quantum dots are a commercial success for nanotechnology. They are already used in display applications. In this article, we discuss multiple innovation and commercialization frontiers of this technology.

Printed, Flexible and Organic Electronics is a market worth $31.6 Billion in 2018, according to IDTechEx Research. The majority of that is for OLED displays, with glass-based versions now entering their golden age and foldable OLEDs and printed OLEDs now entering a phase of commercial growth. Then there is the near $2 Billion market for conductive ink used in many diverse applications and the $3.6 Billion market for sensors, mainly comprising of biosensors so far.

In Mold (or Mould) Electronics promises to enable high-volume production of structural electronics where the electronic circuitry and functionality are part of the 3D-shaped structure itself. This will save weight and space and will enable new elegant designs.

This article from IDTechEx examines whether flexible glass is the ultimate solution for flexible barriers and encapsulation.

In this slide presentation (see below) we describe the different existing and emerging OLED material classes. In particular, we explain and analyse fluorescent (FL), phosphorescent (PH), thermally-activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) and hybrid TADF and fluorescent materials.

Glass is the ultimate barrier substrate material.

We have been following the graphene industry as analysts for the past seven years. The results of our ongoing research can be seen in our report on Graphene, 2D Materials and Carbon Nanotubes: Markets, Technologies and Opportunities 2018-2028. In this time, we have seen the industry grow in maturity.

The IDTechEx Show! on April 10-11 in Berlin brings together eight key disruptive technologies and their customers at one venue.

The market composition of transparent conductive films and materials has not dramatically shifted for some years. It is heavily reliant upon select markets such as flat consumer small/medium sized electronic touch screens. Indeed, the IDTechEx Research report Transparent Conductive Films and Materials 2018-2028: Forecasts, Technologies, Players puts this reliance around 85-90% today. The emergence of new applications has also been slower than many had predicted and hoped. This report finds that so-called 'old' applications are still the vast majority of the market.

In this premium article below we cover some of the latest activities with printed, flexible batteries.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Thursday 14 February titled A Market Outlook for the Aerogel Industry.