The multifunctional coatings opportunity is being shaped by the growing marketplace insistence that buildings, transportation, devices for providing healthcare and even complete cities be smart. In some cases multi functional smart coatings and surfaces may improve functionality, while at the same time improving aesthetics.

The market for smart multifunctionals will be dominated by multilayer coating throughout the forecast period and such coatings will reach just over $1.0 billion in revenues by 2021. Multilayer coatings are the most straightforward approach to creating multi functional coatings although interference between layers can still cause problems.

The end-user sector with the biggest potential for using smart multi functional surfaces will be the construction industry, where multi functional combinations containing self-cleaning functionality in particular seem to have strong possibilities. However, the challenge in this sector is creating coatings with the long lifetimes required for building exteriors and roofs. By 2021 sales of multi functional surfaces to the construction industry will reach $625 million.

The other end user area of importance is automotive which will reach more than $450 million in terms of consumption of smart multifunctionals by 2021. This sector is already widely using multilayer coatings for exterior surfaces and it will be especially easy for smart multifunctionals providing self-healing capabilities to gradually take over from the mature anti-scratch technologies over a relatively short period of time.

Coatings and surfaces that are smart in multiple ways would seem to fit better into the evolving need for smarts than garden varieties, of smart coatings. Analysis also sees in multifunctional coatings a considerable potential for coatings firms — both large, established firms and start-ups – to create significant market value, while differentiating themselves in the market.

Optimistic visions of a profitable multifunctional future for the coatings industry should be balanced not only against the need to match functions with market needs, but with the capabilities of materials and fabrication tools.

Some multifunctional coatings are already on the market, but others are not ready for prime time. Much the same can be said of tools, where there is currently a plethora of fabrication approaches to creating multifunctional surfaces — although some of them are not yet capable of covering the large areas required (say) by the walls of a building.