Carbon Nanotubes Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

Market Overview

The carbon nanotubes market was valued at around USD 2.6 billion in 2020, and the market is projected to register a CAGR of about 20% during the forecast period (2021-2026).

The carbon nanotubes market is hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the electronics market is currently witnessing negative repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has also been holding an impact on the CNT demand from the electronics industry. However, with easing lockdowns in various countries, as noticed from the start of the second half of 2020, the electronics market is likely to recover by 2021.

• Over the medium term, the major factors driving the growth of the carbon nanotubes market are the increasing use of nanotubes in technological advancements in various fields, including medicine, electronics, engineering, and various other applications.
• Various environmental concerns and health and safety issues are expected to hinder the growth of the market studied.
• Multi-walled carbon nanotubes dominated the market and are expected to expand at a significant rate during the forecast period, owing to the increasing application of carbon nanotubes for battery additives and anti-static plastic parts, etc.
• Increasing use of electronic and storage devices is likely to act as an opportunity in the future.
• Asia-Pacific dominated the market across the world, with the largest consumption seen in countries such as China and Japan.

Scope of the Report

Carbon nanotubes are cylindrical molecules that consist of rolled-up sheets of single-layer carbon atoms (graphene). They can be single-walled (SWCNT) with a diameter of less than 1 nanometer (nm) or multi-walled (MWCNT), consisting of several concentrically interlinked nanotubes with diameters reaching more than 100 nm. Their length can reach several micrometers or even millimeters. The carbon nanotubes market is segmented by type, end-user industry, and geography. By type, the market is segmented into multi-walled carbon nanotubes, single-walled carbon nanotubes, and other types. By end-user industry, the market is segmented into electronics, aerospace and defense, automotive, textiles, healthcare, energy, and other end-user industries. The report also covers the market size and forecasts for the carbon nanotubes market in 18 countries across major regions. For each segment, the market sizing and forecasts have been done on the basis of volume (kiloton) and revenue (USD million).

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Key Market Trends

Growing Adoption of Carbon Nanotubes in the Electronics Industry

• Electronics represent the largest end-user industry, in terms of revenue, for the carbon nanotube market. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted significant interest by exhibiting extraordinary electrical properties for organic materials, and they have a huge potential in electrical and electronic applications, such as photovoltaics, sensors, semiconductor devices, displays, and conductors.
• The application of CNTs for the manufacture of electronics has three scenarios: integrating CNTs into thermal interface materials (TIMs), applying CNTs for interconnection, and using CNTs as cooling fins. One of the major applications of carbon nanotubes in the electronics industry is in the area of on-chip thermal management. The heat generated by the microprocessors is considerably high, and the problem of heat dissipation involved is turning into a major issue. Recent studies reported that due to the high axial thermal conductivity of individual carbon nanotubes and efficient cooling via carbon nanotube on silicon chips, efficient heat dissipation is successfully achieved.
• While it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to further shrink the size of transistors in ICs, the future miniaturization of electronics to keep Moore’s Law is expected to be mainly driven by the advances of manufacturing technologies aimed at increasing the density of integration at a system level. This challenge in the transistor industry resulted in the penetration of CNTs in the transistor industry. Building transistors from carbon nanotubes enables minimum transistor dimensions of a few nanometers and the development of techniques to manufacture integrated circuits built with nanotube transistors.
• Although CNTs have been widely considered as superior candidates for flexible electronics due to their high mobility, their practical applications have been limited by the lower performance of flexible CNT thin-film transistors (TFTs) when compared to those built on rigid substrates (such as silicon wafer or glass). For instance, flexible CNT integrated circuits typically exhibit low-speed operation with logic gate delays of over 1 microsecond.
• However, this situation could be changed with the new advancements in research (IBM Research). IBM is one of the several companies tackling the scalability problem of CNT and intended to make them commercially available over the next few years.
• Ensembles of CNTs form networks that can be transparent and at the same time conductive, showing great potential for replacing the currently used indium tin oxide (ITO) (which is currently used in touchscreens and displays), whose future availability is at risk due to the impoverishment of the world's sources of indium. IBM is one of several companies tackling this scalability problem, as it strives to make CNT chips commercially available over the next few years.
• CNTs are also used for manufacturing conductive coatings. They are used for manufacturing conducting ink, which can be used for printing electronics. Due to the extremely small size of the carbon nanotubes, it is possible to develop electrically conducting films, which possess good optical transparency. Such transparent conducting films are typically used for developing touch screens, OLED displays, solar cells, etc. These are examples of the growing areas in which carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can offer many appealing advantages over rigid silicon, such as lower cost, lower power, larger area fabrication, or even roll-to-roll production.
• The current scenario of the semiconductor industry is expected to influence the growth of market demand for CNTs in electronic applications. However, the electronics market is currently witnessing negative repercussions of the COVID-19 outbreak, which has also impacted the CNT demand from the electronics industry. However, the electronics market is likely to recover by 2021.

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