Smart Antibacterial Materials and Antiviral Markets, 2022-2027

The publisher has been tracking market developments and business dynamics in smart antibacterial materials, coatings and surfaces since 2014. The firm’s latest report identifies the key opportunities emerging for smart antibacterial materials and surfaces that target both antibacterial and antiviral markets. COVID-19’s impact on consumers and industries has been far reaching and is shaping the opportunities in this sector. In this report issues discussed include:

How COVID-19 drove the entire antimicrobial materials market

In the past, the biggest drivers for smart anti-microbials have been healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This report shows how the advent of COVID-19 has broadened the market. The impact of COVID-19 meant that both consumer and industrial markets became intensely interested in providing anti-microbial protection to employees and loved ones. The COVID-19 scare promoted product development into both antivirals and antibacterials.

Changing patterns in end-user price sensitivity

In the past, consumers have been reluctant to buy smart antimicrobial products because of their high price and short life. Today this has changed as smart antimicrobials are justified on the basis of health, economic and societal requirements. A major focus of antimicrobial R&D is to make them more cost effective and give them longer lifetimes

The new opportunity presented by antivirals

Antivirals have understandably received special attention in these efforts. (COVID-19 is a virus). This report discusses how new materials are being developed specifically for antiviral protection.

Why smart materials are of growing importance in the antimicrobial market

• Established smart materials
• self-cleaning and self-healing coatings and surfaces
• are obviously important in providing anti-microbial functionality. Affix Labs and others have introduced an antiviral coating with self-cleaning technology, based on silane quaternary ammonium. polymeric biocides are distinctly smart
• they embody antimicrobial characteristics with self-healing ability. DSM Biomedical, offers an anti-microbial coating that self-assembles and is based on hydrophilic technology. Hydrogels are sometimes claimed to have considerable promise because they can incorporate and/or release antimicrobial agents

Where the R&D centers of excellence are to be found for smart antimicrobials

Some major academic institutions that this report indicates may produce breakthroughs in smart antimicrobials include ETH (Switzerland, COVID sensor), Northwestern University (wearable COVID sensor) RMIT University (Australia, gallium-based liquid metal nanoparticles), University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (antiviral coatings), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel, antiviral nanoparticle coatings), McMaster University (Canada, self-cleaning antibacterial surface that repels bacteria) and the University of Texas (sensor for COVID-19 and flu).

This report is accompanied by an Excel spreadsheet with granular ten-year forecasts of all the markets considered in the report with breakouts by application, type of end user and type of material. The report also provides coverage of the supply structure including an assessment of (1) the product/market strategies of leading suppliers and (2) how supply chains are evolving.