Vast amounts of time, research and capital have been invested broadly in nanotechnology over the past 20 years. The majority of this effort has been expended by government laboratories, academia and industry, and many new nanomaterials, new routes to nano-versions of existing materials, and improved metrology and analytics have subsequently emerged.
These new capabilities have resulted in the commercial utilization of nanoproducts in industries as diverse as silicon wafer polishing and UV filters for personal care. However, the adoption of nanomaterials in the coatings market has been less rapid than some forecasts had originally suggested it might be, despite the potential benefits such materials can offer, including improved scratch resistance and better UV protection. It would appear that assumptions about “drop in” performance in the end-use applications for nanoparticle-containing additives have simply been too optimistic. Why is this?
To answer this question, it is instructive to study the evolution of attempts to use nanoparticles in coatings applications in general. In some instances, products were taken to market by nanotechnology companies which, while perhaps expert in the synthesis and manipulation of nanomaterials, had little technical, marketing or sales expertise in the coatings industry. In other cases, large, well-known chemical additives companies with a strong existing presence in coatings but little knowledge of nanomaterials attempted to invent or purchase nanotechnology and rapidly deploy it through existing channels to market. Neither of these approaches has been especially successful commercially; many small nanotechnology companies have simply disappeared, and at least one large specialty chemical company has exited the nanoadditives business altogether.