The conductive ink market has continued to grow in recent years, thanks to its wide range of applications and technological innovations in several fields. Conductive ink is an ink made by dispersing conductive materials in the binder, which has conductive properties and can be used for printed circuits, electrodes, electroplating substrates, keyboard contacts, printed resistors and other materials. Gold, silver, copper, and carbon-based conductive inks have been put into practical use.
The global conductive inks market size reached USD 2.73 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow from USD 2.84 billion in 2024 to USD 3.98 billion by 2032, registering a CAGR of 4.2% during the forecast period. Conductive inks are used in a wide range of applications, including printing RFID tags, computer keyboards, windshield defrosters, etc. The growing demand for flexibility in electronics is driving the market. In addition, conductive inks can be used for energy storage components such as supercapacitors, which can be made in any size or shape.
Technological innovation is one of the key factors driving the development of the conductive inks market. For example, researchers at Linköping University and international collaborators have developed a conductive n-type polymer ink that is stable to air and high temperatures, and this new n-type material is in ink form and uses ethanol as a solvent to pave the way for innovative conductive inks for energy-efficient printed electronics.
Figure: The market for conductive inks continues to grow
Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the conductive inks market due to the increasing use of products in end-use industries such as photovoltaics, touch screens, microelectronics, and others. The rapid growth of the consumer electronics and photovoltaic industries in countries such as China, India, and Japan will increase the demand for conductive inks in the coming years.
However, the market also faces some challenges, such as silver price volatility that could affect industry growth. Silver conductive inks are widely used due to their high conductive properties, but the rising cost of silver has prompted the search for alternative, low-cost conductive metals such as copper, graphene, and aluminum.
As a new type of conductive ink, graphene conductive ink has attracted much attention because of its excellent conductive properties and cost-effectiveness. Graphene conductive ink is not only superior to traditional carbon-based conductive ink in terms of conductivity, but also has the advantage of being compatible with inkjet printing, and is expected to be widely used in radio frequency identification systems, intelligent packaging, printed circuit boards and other fields.
Overall, the conductive ink market is expected to continue to grow, driven by technological innovation and application expansion, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite some challenges, the overall outlook for the market remains positive.
