Color-shifting paints, inks, coatings and additives are increasingly able to serve as technology enablers for a range of commercial applications, in areas as different as clothing and automotive exteriors, adding a dynamic extension to the use of color. This can potentially translate into market opportunities in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually basis.

Many of these opportunities leverage kinds of thermos-chromic technologies that have been around for a while, primarily those activated by changes in heat, light, and simply the angles of view. At the same time, there are innovative developments that offer to up the ante, from color-shifting ferrofluids to nanotextured thin films that present different colors when stretched. The breadth of color-shifting materials will expand rapidly, and open up even more options to help drive adoption in various end markets.

There are roughly five end-markets with the most to gain from incorporating color-shifting technologies into end products: clothing and textiles, security and brand protection, automotive, construction, and sensors (a vast range of lower-end uses). Each sector displays a growing interest in the added value that color-shifting functionality could provide. Moreover, within these segments are many prominent companies adopting these technologies, firms that understand what drives demand within their markets.

The key emerging opportunities for color-shifting materials, offer guidance on where and how these smart materials will be used in the future and profile the leading firms who are shaping the color-shifting materials space are interesting to review.