Photovoltaics is now a key enabling technology for land vehicles and boats. The favorite type is single crystal silicon - it used to be protected by an acrylic sheet on either side, making it bendable when being fitted, but that has strength and weathering issues. Now, much stronger, long-life polycarbonate is taking over.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is generating much enthusiasm across the world, with the hopes that it could play a major role in the fight against climate change. However, amidst this enthusiasm, the industry suffered an apparent setback in mid-2020 when the Petra Nova facility in Texas, then the world's largest CCUS facility for a coal-fired power station, was closed down.

We are looking for entrepreneurial, enthusiastic people to join IDTechEx to apply their technical knowledge. You will be involved with technology scouting, market research and consultancy in a rapidly growing, exciting, global firm.

6G Communications will become one of the largest technology investments. It is currently in the healthy first stage of promising everything to widely deploy some in 2030. Even at this early stage, some myths are emerging.

For a long time, graphene has been cited as the wonder material that will change the world. The reality has been very different; disillusionment has started to grow as the hype has not translated into revenue. Is the "tipping point" finally approaching?

6G Communications is coming to your smartphone around 2030, according to Samsung and others, but it can only succeed if it deploys smart surfaces everywhere. Essential to this is printed electronics.

Additively manufactured electronics is an emerging approach that takes printed electronics into the third dimension. IDTechEx divides the sector into two aspects: 'fully additive' and 'printing onto 3D surfaces'. Both have multiple application opportunities that IDTechEx believes will develop over the next decade.

Thursday 18 March 2021 - New Opportunities Emerge for the Aerogel Market. The status of the silica aerogel market; Overview of key manufacturers capacity and product benchmarking; Assessment on the rise of Chinese manufacturers; Patent developments; and much more.

Conductive inks are a long-established technology, however, technology rarely stands still, and there is extensive innovation within the conductive ink space. Particle-free inks are an especially promising example with multiple advantages and applications.

The smart surfaces essential to 6G communications will be over $7 billion in 2034 - find out more in the upcoming webinar Thursday 1 April 2021.

Today, antimicrobial technologies are used around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surfaces and products protected by antimicrobial technology can continuously inactivate and kill harmful microorganisms such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In this article, IDTechEx highlights three innovative start-ups that are developing next-generation antimicrobial technologies.

Thermal management is one of the most important topics in a wide range of applications; from electric vehicle battery packs through to consumer electronics, there is a pressing need to dissipate heat efficiently. Thermal interface materials (TIM) come in numerous types and play a crucial role in the thermal transfer from a heat source. This article looks at what the major innovations are for these materials and why those developments are significant.

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies are likely to play a key role in the fight against climate change, with the UN estimating that CCUS could mitigate between 1.5 and 6.3 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalents per year by 2050. The world has already taken its steps along this pathway, however, for CCUS to have a meaningful impact on emissions in a timely manner, it will need to scale up hundreds of times compared with today's levels.

The aerogel market is forecast to exceed $700m within the next decade. This may appear modest for a unique material family that has been known for nearly a century, but after long periods of stagnation and several market failings this would represent a significant growth from the market status in 2020. This article will look at what will be driving this growth.

Investment and development in haptics is accelerating, and the supply chain providing the actuators, drivers and software behind these key components is evolving at a faster pace every year. IDTechEx's latest report on haptics, "Haptics 2021-2031: Technologies, Market & Players", predicts that the industry will be worth nearly $5bn in 2025.

Thursday 25 February 2021 - Solar cars and boats are now mainstream, some never plugging in. The technology of the most advanced ones is being licensed to others, a robot shuttle being next up.

Given the exciting properties, graphene has always been linked as a revolutionary material for the electronics industry. CVD graphene is cited as the ideal solution in providing a perfect single layer produced in a low cost continuous R2R process, but the manufacturing and commercial reality have proved very different. After a long period of research, and with players regularly exiting and entering the field, we are only now starting to see this technology mature and the dawn of the commercial reality.

3D printing offers an efficient method to improve current manufacturing limits across economic sectors such as transport, construction, and medical and dental industries allowing rapid prototyping and on-site production and repairs.

Thursday 18 February 2021 - Emerging 3rd and 4th generation emissive materials for OLED displays; A technological transition that increases the efficiency of organic photovoltaics; Functional inks for lighting; and Low temperature component attachment materials.

The remarkable price increases in particular US stocks, most notably GameStop, made the news last week as the power of retail investors to move markets became clear. On Monday 1st Feb, the BBC reported that silver prices increased by around 10 % as retail investors turned their attention to commodities, reaching a 5-month high of almost $950/kg.