VIRGINIA,USA (Commodity Online): With the recent surge in utilisation of nano-silver based transparent conducting materials, more than 15 firms have emerged in this sunrise industry whcih is set to reach $540 mn in market size by 2016, according to a report by NanoMarkets.
"With the extremely high conductivity possible using nanosilver, this interest is hardly surprising. And the use of nanosilver transparent conductors has also been boosted by the many uncertainties that now surround the established ITO market as well as the emergence of market sectors – notably touch display sensors – to which nanosilver transparent conductors seem especially well suited. Cambrios, the “granddaddy” of the nanosilver transparent conductor industry, is already shipping to commercial customers and appears to be headed towards profitability."
Given all of the above, nanosilver-based transparent conductors seem well on their way to being an important success story for the nanomaterials industry. However, NanoMarkets believes that to understand where the real opportunities are in the nanosilver-based transparent conductor space a deeper analysis is required. For example, although not often mentioned, there are differing approaches using nanosilver as a transparent conductor. Some firms use inks based on silver nanostructures, some print grids that use nanosilver but are similar in style to the thick-film silver grids used for solar panels, some combine nanosilver with other transparent conductors including the classic ITO.
This diversity raises the question of what kind of nanosilver solutions are best suited to current and future marketplace conditions and beyond that where nanosilver as a whole fits into the requirements for transparent conductors in both the display and solar panel industry. Should suppliers of transparent conductors offer a range of transparent conductors – of which only some will be silver-based – to take advantage of customer needs? And will nanosilver and nanotube transparent conductor solutions compete with each other or complement each other in some way?
Nano Markets provides answers for the above isues and also discusses which sectors of the display and solar panel industry are likely to be most open to nanosilver transparent conductors. In addition, this report appraises the strategies of all the major firms offering or planning to offer nanosilver-based transparent conductor solutions, providing a clear idea of who the winners and losers in this space will be. Finally, as with all NanoMarkets reports, this report provides a granular eight-year forecast, with breakouts by type of application and type of nanosilver solution used, according to a press release.
This report analyzes the demand for the silver-based inks and films that are beginning to find their way into touch-screen displays and which, according to NanoMarkets, may also be used in conventional flat panel displays (FPD). Other applications where the report predicts silver-based transparent conducting materials will be used include OLED and e-paper displays, OLED lighting, thin-film and organic photovoltaics, anti-statics and EMI/RFI shielding.
The report provides eight-year projections (both volume and value) of all of the application areas listed above. It also identifies what the implications are for other kinds of transparent conductor including carbon nanotubes, transparent conducting oxides and conductive polymers as well as the dominant ITO. Among the firms discussed in this report are: 3M, Agfa, Cambrios, Carestream, Cima NanoTech, Dow Chemical, Fujifilm, Ferro, Kodak, PolyIC, Saint-Gobain, Sigma Technologies, Sumitomo, Suzhou NanoGrid and Toray.
Key Findings from this report:
The touch-screen displays business may be a good starting place for silver-based transparent conductor businesses, and this is the market that most of the firms selling “transparent silver” are aiming their marketing strategies at. But NanoMarkets believes that the longer-term revenue potential for touch screens will be limited. The new report indicates that touch-screen sensors will generate only $65.4 million in silver-based transparent conductor sales by 2016.
According to NanoMarkets, the only way for the materials discussed in this report to take off commercially in a big way will be if the firms that supply them overcome the resistance of the major FPD firms to making the switch from ITO. Encouragingly, this new report indicates that we are seeing the first signs of this happening. But it also warns that if significant barriers to entry persist in the display industry, silver-based transparent conductors will never amount to more than a niche business.
However, if the conventional display industry does open up to silver-based transparent conductors, the market is likely to need these materials delivered in new forms. In the same way that large display manufacturers now do their own ITO sputtering, display firms of the future will want to print their own transparent silver conductors. This will means that today’s tiny share of the silver transparent conductor market held by inks will increase rapidly at the expense of the films that currently dominate. NanoMarkets also expects to see a growing market for silver-based transparent conductors on glass substrates.
