report
3.5.3 State of R&D

In the nano-polymer sector it is predominantly nanostructured PMMA-films which are in broader commercial application as material component of bio-medical implants, in tissue engineering and as photo resist in lithography. Other nanostructured polymer films and polymer nanocoatings are some 5-10 years from market maturity. However, their application spectrum is promising ranging from thermal and chemical insulation, surface coatings and thin-film transistors to utilization in photodetectors, solar cells, batteries, diodes and displays.

Somewhat closer to market entry but still in applied research are polymeric nanoparti-cles, nanotubes, nanowires and nanofibers. Even they promise manifold application potential e. g. in sensing, as membrane and implant material or in solar cells and OLEDs. However, drug delivery and tissue engineering applications are in an earlier research state.

The latter even holds for bio-medical applications of dendrimers such as transfection, protein modelling and bio-medical dendrimer coatings. However, utilization of den-drimers as additives to paints, inks, toners, glues etc. seem to be in a more advanced research state and closer to market maturity, which may be expected in 5-10 years.