Advanced Materials, Economic Evaluation
Authors: Moskowitz Sanford L. 
Published: July 2004

The advanced materials industry, which began to emerge in force in the late 1970s, is one of the most dynamic industries today. It creates an increasing variety of new and different products with a wide range of applications across the major industrial sectors. The advanced materials industry includes biochemicals (including genetic‐based materials), bioengineered materials, catalysts, ceramics and clays, coatings, composites, crystal materials, fuels, fullerenes, metal alloys, nanomaterials (eg, nanotubes, nanopowders, nanospheres, nanofibers), optical and photonic materials, polymers (eg, plastics, rubber, fibers) and polymer matrices, powdered metals, sensor materials, superconducting materials, and thin films.

Increasingly, technological change and economic growth within society depend on innovation and commercialization of advanced materials. The economic impact of the advanced materials industry continues to expand both within the United States and globally. The economic effects of the industry involve not only direct impact, but indirect and induced expansion throughout the economy as well. This growth will continue, and accelerate, over the next two decades, and beyond. By 2012, total sales of advanced materials in the United States will be between $21 and 22 billion annually. These sales, in turn, represent a full economic impact within the United States in excess of $77 billion. Globally, total sales of advanced materials in 2012 will be $65.6 billion resulting in a full economic impact of the industry internationally of ∼ $262 billion.

Over the next decade, some of the more critical advance material products to emerge will include bioengineering synthetics, high performance ceramics, advanced coatings (ie, thermal, conductive, anticorrosion, and multifunctional), nanocarbon materials (ie, nanopowders, nanocomposites, advanced fullerenes, and nanotubes), advanced fibers (ie, nanofibers and matrices), and thin films. Together, these materials will account for 85% of the market within the United States in 2012 for all advanced materials. At that time, these materials will be responsible for 93% of the full economic impact—direct, indirect, and induced—created by the United States advanced materials industry. High performance ceramics represents the largest segment in the U.S. market, with 2012 sales projected to be $12.1 billion (or 56.3% of total sales for the group), followed by nanocarbon materials with 2012 U.S. sales of $2.5 billion (11.6% of total sales), advanced coatings with sales of $1.8 billion (8.4% of the total), and bioengineered materials with $1.3 billion sales (6.0% of the total) in 2012. By 2012, advanced fibers and thin films, while still relatively small segments, will be registering production and sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars and will face rapidly growing markets.

This article presents an overview of the industry from the perspective of technological development, economic impact, and market activity. In doing so, it first considers general issues for the industry as a whole, including market trends, historical context, process flow, industry structure, the commercialization process, product development and “cycles,” and competitive strategies.

The article then examines in detail the technology and markets of these six major advanced material groups. These materials are currently (2003) in production or are on the verge of being commercialized. They represent some of the radically new material technologies being developed. These materials are well known within the technical and business communities, and have well defined and near‐term markets and expectations of significant sales growth over the next 10 years and beyond.