▼The subdivision industry orientation of China's new materials industry

As one of the ten key areas proposed in the "Made in China 2025" strategy for building a strong manufacturing nation, the new materials industry undertakes important missions such as leading the upgrading and replacement of the materials industry, supporting the development of strategic emerging industries, and ensuring the national economy and defense industry construction.

1、 Characteristics and Trends of the Development of Foreign New Materials Industry

（1） Development status of new materials industry in various countries

The development level of the new materials industry has become an important indicator for measuring a country's economic and social development, technological progress, and national defense strength. Therefore, countries around the world have formulated and introduced corresponding plans in the field of new materials, striving to seize the high ground of the new materials industry.

At present, developed countries still occupy a leading position in the international new materials industry. The world's leading new materials enterprises are mainly concentrated in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Among them, six companies from Japan, the United States, and Germany account for more than 70% of the global carbon fiber production capacity, five companies from Japan and the United States account for more than 90% of the global 12 inch wafer production, and three companies from Japan account for more than 90% of the global LCD backlight luminescent material production.

▼Development plans related to new materials in various countries around the world

（2） Development Trends of New Materials Industry in Various Countries

1. The development of high-tech promotes the continuous updating and replacement of materials

The rapid development of high-tech poses new challenges and demands for key basic materials, while material updates and replacements promote the industrialization of high-tech achievements.

The integration degree and information processing speed of microelectronic chips have significantly increased, while costs continue to decrease, and silicon materials have played an important role; The development of emerging industries such as gallium nitride and other compound semiconductor materials has given rise to semiconductor lighting technology; The light efficiency of LED lights brings revolutionary changes to the lighting industry; The continuous improvement of solar cell conversion efficiency has greatly promoted the development of the new energy industry. Breakthroughs have been made in the processing technology of high-performance structural materials such as magnesium titanium alloys, resulting in continuous cost reductions. The research and application focus has expanded from aviation, aerospace, and military industries to high value-added civilian fields.

2. Green and low-carbon have become important trends in the development of new materials

The rise of the new energy industry is driving the development of upstream industries such as wind turbine manufacturing, photovoltaic modules, polycrystalline silicon, and a series of manufacturing and resource processing industries, promoting the development and production of transmission and terminal products such as smart grids and electric vehicles.

Developed countries such as Europe and America have passed legislation to promote the development of energy-saving buildings and photovoltaic power generation buildings. Functional materials are developing towards miniaturization, multifunctionality, modular integration, intelligence, and other directions to enhance material performance; The integration of nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing technology will result in products that are smaller in size, more integrated, more intelligent, and have superior functionality. Green and low-carbon new material technology and industrialization will become the main direction of future development.

3. Multinational corporations still dominate the new materials industry

At present, world-renowned enterprise groups are continuously expanding into the field of new materials with their advantages in technology research and development, funding, and talent, and occupying a dominant position in high value-added new material products.

Uniming almost monopolizes the international market with high-end quartz sand products of 4N8 and above; Shinetsu, SUMCO, Silvronic, SunEdison and other companies occupy over 80% of the international semiconductor silicon material market share. More than 90% of the semi insulating gallium arsenide market is occupied by Hitachi Electric, Sumitomo Electric, Mitsubishi Chemical, and FCM from Germany.

Seven companies including DuPont, Daikin, Hoechst, 3M, Ausimont, ATO, and ICI have 90% of the global production capacity for organic fluorine materials. Cree's silicon carbide substrate preparation technology has strong market competitiveness, while Lumileds, a company controlled by Philips, is internationally leading in power type white LED. Enterprises from the United States, Japan, Germany, and other countries have 70% of core patents for LED epitaxial growth and chip preparation.

The manufacturing of small bundle carbon fiber is basically monopolized by Japan's Toray Fiber Company, Toho Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and the United States' Hexel Corporation, while the large bundle carbon fiber market is almost dominated by four companies in the United States: Fortafil, Zoltek, Aldila, and Germany's SGL. World leading companies such as American Aluminum, German Aluminum, and French Aluminum dominate the research and production of high-strength and high toughness aluminum alloy materials. The total output of the three major titanium production companies in the United States, Timet, RMI, and Allegen Teledyne, accounts for 90% of the total titanium processing volume in the United States and is the main supplier of aerospace grade titanium materials in the world.

4. The transformation of new material research and development models has become a focus of attention

Since the 21st century, developed countries have gradually realized that traditional material research methods relying on intuition and trial and error can no longer keep up with the rapid development of industry, and may even become a bottleneck restricting technological progress. Therefore, there is an urgent need to innovate material research and development methods to accelerate the process of materials from research and development to application.

For example, the US government's Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) aims to accelerate the discovery to application of new materials by at least double, reduce costs by at least half, and develop high-end manufacturing based on advanced materials while maintaining its advantages in core technology fields.

（3） Product and Technology Development Trends

The breakthrough of key core technologies in new materials promotes the ultimate realization of multifunctionality, high performance, and intelligent integration of new material products, thereby increasing the added value of new material products and enhancing their overall market competitiveness.

1. High end metal structural materials

New metal materials have always been one of the main materials for the development of new materials in the world. In the future, artificial high-end medical metal materials, new aluminum alloy materials, nickel titanium intelligent alloy materials, etc. will become the main development direction of high-end metal structural materials.

One is that with the discovery of a new material with extraordinary pressure expansion ability by the University of Oxford in the UK - zinc ferrocyanide, new optical pressure sensors and artificial muscles will become one of the important development directions for high-end metal structural materials;

Secondly, with the implementation of Canada's new plan to develop new aluminum alloy technology, it will be mainly applied to transportation facilities such as cars, trucks, trailers, buses, and trains in the future to reduce the weight of transportation facilities and improve transportation efficiency;

Thirdly, with the development of nickel titanium smart alloy materials by Saarland University in Germany, they will be widely used in fields such as medical artificial organs, especially in the manufacturing of artificial muscles.

2. Carbon nano semiconductor materials

In recent years, carbon nano semiconductor materials have gradually shown potential for substitution and are moving towards practical applications. The first generation of semiconductor silicon materials still has certain potential for development before reaching the physical limit. By changing the structure of materials and devices, such as silicon on insulator technology, multi gate transistor technology, and three-dimensional IC technology, silicon-based semiconductors can still maintain the development of Moore's Law to a certain extent.

In addition, the 22nm process based on multi gate transistor technology has entered the mass production stage, and silicon-based 14nm process products have also entered mass production.

3. Second generation III-V semiconductor materials

At present, it is widely used in the field of high-frequency transistors, but as a material for logic circuit transistors, it is still in the research process. The practical use of III-V group semiconductors in integrated circuits may be achieved between 2015 and 2018.

The third-generation semiconductors such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride have gradually been commercialized in the field of power semiconductor devices, but the cost of silicon carbide power devices is currently high and their performance still needs further optimization.

4. Graphene material

Widely applied research has been conducted in fields such as electronic devices, photonics, energy, and composite materials. NOVOSEloV, a scientist who won the Nobel Prize for the preparation of graphene, led a team of scientists in 2012 to predict the application prospects of graphene and outline its future development roadmap. He believed that the electronic and photonics applications of graphene would be realized in 2015, while some applications would not be realized until 2025-2030.

However, in the development process, issues such as bandgap, contact resistance, and the preparation of high-quality and low-cost graphene remain significant challenges.

5. Intelligent materials

Mainly refers to electronic information materials and optoelectronic materials. The research on smart materials has fundamentally changed some current engineering problems and concepts of safety and reliability testing, and may even spark epoch-making technological innovations.

The research on smart materials has made significant progress, and smart materials and related structural systems made by integrating electronic ceramics with sensing, execution, and other functions have been applied in high-end cars and household appliances.

2、 Characteristics and Trends of Domestic New Materials Industry Development

（1） Overview of Industrial Development

1. Rapid growth in industrial scale

The new materials industry system in our country has initially taken shape and the development situation is good. With the introduction of national strategic plans such as the "13th Five Year Plan for the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries" and the "13th Five Year Plan for the Development of New Materials Industry", a favorable policy environment has been created for the development of the new materials industry.

At present, the scale of China's new materials industry is about 2 trillion yuan. The new materials industry has a good foundation in traditional fields such as metal materials, textile materials, and chemical materials. Its production capacity in rare earth functional materials, advanced energy storage materials, photovoltaic materials, organic silicon, superhard materials, special stainless steel, glass fiber and its composite materials ranks among the top in the world.

The semiconductor lighting industry has formed a relatively complete R&D and industrial system from upstream epitaxial material growth and chip manufacturing, midstream device packaging to downstream integrated applications, with an industry scale of over 500 billion yuan. The scale of the energy-saving glass material industry has reached 30 billion yuan; The production of rare earth functional materials accounts for about 80% of the global market share; The industrial scale of main functional ceramic component products has grown to 25 billion yuan.

2. Key technological breakthroughs in essence

Through the combination of industry, academia, research and application, many important new material technology indicators have been significantly improved, and research results have been promoted and applied. Large diameter silicon materials are constantly improving in terms of defect, geometric parameters, particles, impurities, and other control technologies. 300mm silicon materials can meet the requirements of integrated circuits at 45nm technology nodes, and 450mm silicon single crystals have been successfully drawn.

After years of development, the research on ultraviolet nonlinear optical crystals such as barium metaborate and lithium triborate in artificial crystal materials has reached the international leading level and achieved commercialization; The key technical indicators of laser crystals and solar cells have reached the international advanced level, and the cost of photovoltaic power generation has been reduced to below 1 yuan/kWh.

The positive and negative electrode materials and electrolyte of lithium-ion batteries meet the requirements of small batteries, and key materials such as separators and electrolyte lithium salts replace imports; Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene fibers have significantly narrowed the gap with developed countries. T300 grade carbon fiber has achieved stable production, with a single line capacity increased to 1200t; T700 and T800 grade carbon fibers have achieved mass supply capability and have begun to be applied to aerospace equipment; Develop copper strip, copper tube casting technology, and copper aluminum composite technology with independent intellectual property rights; Subsea pipeline steel X65, X70, X80, thick walled marine oil and gas welded pipes, and medium thick plates for chemical ships have all been domestically produced. Low cost graphene has begun to be produced and applied to information and communication devices such as touch screens and thermal conductive films.

The continuous breakthroughs in key technologies and the increasing variety of new materials have significantly enhanced China's ability to guarantee high-end metal structural materials, new inorganic non-metallic materials, and high-performance composite materials. The self-sufficiency level of advanced polymer materials and special metal functional materials is gradually improving.

3. The regional agglomeration trend is obvious

Actively promoting the construction of new material industry bases, strengthening resource integration, gradually revealing regional characteristics, and showing a clear trend of regional agglomeration, a spatial pattern of "eastern coastal agglomeration and central western characteristic development" has been initially formed. The Yangtze River Delta has formed a cluster of new materials industries, including aerospace, new energy, electronic information, and new chemical industries.

The new materials industry in the Pearl River Delta has a high concentration and has formed a relatively complete industrial chain, with strong advantages in fields such as electronic information materials, modified engineering plastics, and ceramic materials. The role of technological innovation in the Bohai Rim region is significant, with significant advantages in multiple fields such as rare earth functional materials, membrane materials, silicon materials, high-tech ceramics, magnetic materials, and special fibers.

Rare earth new materials in Inner Mongolia, rare and precious metal new materials in Yunnan and Guizhou, non-ferrous metal new materials in Guangxi, neodymium iron boron permanent magnet materials in Ningbo, chemical new materials in Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao and other places, aerospace materials, energy materials and major equipment materials in Chongqing, Xi'an, Jinchang in Gansu, Changsha Zhuzhou Xiangtan in Hunan, Baoji in Shaanxi, Weihai and Taiyuan in Shandong, and polycrystalline silicon material industries in Xuzhou, Luoyang, Lianyungang, Jiangsu have also formed their own regional characteristics.

▼Agglomeration of New Materials Industry in the Yangtze River Delta Region

4. The supporting role is increasingly evident

The role of new materials in supporting major application demonstration projects is increasingly evident, providing important technical support for the development of China's energy, resource and environment, and information fields. It is an important guarantee for the construction of major projects and the consolidation of national defense and military industry.

Governments at all levels have organized and implemented major application demonstration projects such as energy-saving products benefiting the people, ten cities with ten thousand lamps, Golden Sun, and the Internet of Things. By 2030, the number of new energy vehicles in China's market is expected to reach 15 million. Membrane materials have been applied in seawater desalination and have initially formed the production capacity of reverse osmosis seawater desalination, becoming an important component of China's coastal water supply security system.

High performance structural materials represented by non-ferrous metal structural new materials, high-temperature alloys, carbon fiber and their composite materials have made contributions to the smooth implementation of major projects such as high-speed railways, large aircraft, manned spaceflight, lunar exploration projects, ultra-high voltage power transmission, and deep-sea oil and gas development.

（2） Industry Development Trends

The transformation and upgrading speed of traditional material enterprises is accelerating. 80-90% of China's material enterprises are traditional metal and chemical material enterprises, which have the largest market share and are the leading forces in the material industry. In the next 10 years, the decline in demand for ordinary products and the demand for high-end products will force these two types of traditional material enterprises to accelerate their technological upgrading and transformation, and their transformation and upgrading speed will be significantly accelerated.

Among them, the development direction of the transformation and upgrading of metal material enterprises is to vigorously develop special metal materials such as high-purity metals and amorphous alloys, as well as high-quality special steel that can be used in nuclear power, ultra supercritical thermal power, marine engineering, automotive engineering, and rail transit; The development direction of transformation and upgrading for chemical material enterprises mainly includes synthetic rubber, engineering plastics, organic silicon materials, and fluorine materials.

1. Gradually developing towards high-end, healthy, and green direction

In the next decade, emerging industries such as high-end equipment, automobile manufacturing, electronic information, new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, new buildings, biomedicine, smart grids, and 3D printing are expected to maintain a rapid development trend. Therefore, high-end materials that drive the development of emerging industries are the main direction for the future development of China's new materials industry, including high-quality special steel, high-strength lightweight alloys, high-performance fibers and composite materials, aviation ceramic materials, and aviation grade 3D printed metal powder materials.

In addition, with the increasing demand for health and environmental protection among the people, there is also a growing demand for green and healthy materials such as biomedical materials, green and environmentally friendly materials, new building materials, and high-performance membrane materials.

2. New materials in the electronic information and lithium battery industries are expected to accelerate their growth

With the development of the new generation of information technology industry, the research and production of electronic information materials is an important direction for future development. Low defect 12 inch and above electronic grade single crystal silicon, ultra-thin 8-inch and above silicon on insulator (SOI), wide bandgap semiconductors and devices, as well as AMOLED organic light-emitting materials and devices, large-sized fiber preforms, optical films, and special gases for integrated circuits will gradually achieve industrial applications, and some products will gradually replace imports.

In terms of lithium battery materials, companies specializing in positive electrode materials, negative electrode materials, conductive slurries, and battery separators are constantly emerging, and core technologies are gradually being successfully developed and industrialized, with enormous potential for development. During the 13th Five Year Plan period, the fields of electronic information and new materials for lithium battery industry are expected to achieve accelerated growth.

3. High strength lightweight alloy new materials may be widely applied

The application of high-performance aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, and titanium alloys in aerospace, military, automotive, power equipment, and other fields is becoming increasingly widespread. Especially with the development of the automotive industry, the application of high-performance alloys in vehicles is rapidly increasing, and their market demand is growing.

With the high-end and intelligent development of power equipment, aluminum alloy cable technology and products have gradually been well-known and accepted by the market. Aluminum alloy materials, with their performance advantages, will also be increasingly widely used in the power industry. Products related to "replacing copper with aluminum" will gradually be applied in various fields such as power lines and cables, transformers, automotive heat exchangers, air conditioning radiators, etc., and their future development is unlimited.

（3） Product and Technology Development Trends

With the breakthrough of new material technology in China, new material products have achieved intelligence, multifunctionality, environmental protection, compounding, low cost, long life, and personalized customization to a large extent. These products will accelerate the revolutionary progress of the information industry and biotechnology, and can also have a significant impact on manufacturing, service industries, and people's lifestyles.

At the same time, the development and application of new materials are more closely linked. According to the demand of the new material market, we can accelerate the research and development speed of new materials, improve the performance of materials, facilitate the rapid practical application of new materials, and reduce the "performance waste" of materials. Emphasizing military civilian integration and expanding the market for dual-use military civilian products is the trend of new material development. The next generation of RF high-energy efficiency and high-power devices based on wide bandgap silicon carbide and gallium nitride are about to become high-end electronic products with potential for military civilian integration.

1. Electronic functional materials

Since the 12th Five Year Plan, China has begun to develop a new generation of electronic functional materials based on market demand, including low defect 12 inch and above electronic grade single crystal silicon, ultra-thin 8-inch and above silicon on insulator (SOI), wide bandgap semiconductors and devices, as well as AMOLED organic light-emitting materials and devices for industrialization and demonstration applications. High energy radiation detection using cadmium zinc telluride semiconductor materials and devices has been industrialized, and cadmium zinc telluride crystals have gradually achieved large-scale applications in industrial CT and specialized detectors.

2. Surface functional (nano) materials

Nanotechnology is one of the important fundamental technologies in the materials industry of the 21st century. At present, China has established a considerable foundation in the field of nanotechnology. The next 10 years will be a golden period for the development and application of nanotechnology, especially in important industries such as optoelectronics, lithium batteries, environmental protection, and construction, where breakthroughs may be made.

The development focus of nanomaterials is on nanocarbon materials (such as carbon nanotubes and nanoquantum dots), nanoenergy materials, third-generation semiconductor materials such as gallium nitride, nanometal materials such as nanosilver and nanoalumina, nanofunctional composite materials, and nanobiomedical materials.

3. Functional glass material

With the development of the new generation of information technology industry, the research and production of functional glass materials has become an important research direction for new materials. At present, China has made breakthroughs in new TFT display ultra-thin glass substrate materials, high-performance fiber preform materials, high-performance special optical fibers, high-performance low-cost graphene powders, and high-performance thin film materials, and has begun to demonstrate their applications in new displays, advanced batteries, and other fields.

4. Advanced carbon materials

The advanced carbon materials industry mainly includes carbon fiber, graphene, graphite negative electrode materials, carbon nanotubes, etc. In terms of carbon fiber, it is expected that in the next 3-5 years, domestic T700 carbon fiber can achieve low-cost stable production and large-scale market application, while T800 is also expected to be applied to domestic high-end equipment.

In terms of graphene, its application in wind power protective coatings and mobile phone touch screens is also steadily advancing, with production capacity continuously expanding and about to experience explosive growth. With the rapid development of the lithium battery industry, the application of graphite negative electrode materials and carbon nanotube conductive slurries in the lithium battery industry will also grow rapidly.

5. High end metal materials

With the gradual rise of the high-end equipment industry, the materials required for marine engineering equipment in China have gradually received attention. Research and development have begun to produce high-strength structural steel with a steel plate thickness greater than 180mm, corrosion-resistant steel for large oil tanker cargo tanks, thick walled pipeline steel for deep-sea oil and gas transportation, high-performance aluminum alloy drill rods and oil casing steel urgently needed for ultra deep wells and low-temperature mining, as well as TA2 and TC4 grade titanium alloy materials, which have been demonstrated and applied in ships and marine engineering equipment.

6. Ecological environment materials

With the increasing prosperity of the energy-saving and environmental protection industry, ecological and environmental materials represented by new materials for air pollution control have become key materials for the energy-saving and environmental protection industry. China has gradually made certain achievements in the field of new materials for air pollution control. Started developing and producing high-performance PM2.5 filter materials, high-performance denitrification materials, and flue gas NOx removal materials for industrial use.

In addition, the "Guidelines for the Development of Key Common Technologies in Industries (2017)" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology clearly states the need to develop deep processing technologies for mineral functional materials used in industrial wastewater treatment, including modification and retrofitting technologies for mineral functional materials such as bentonite; Technologies such as increasing the specific surface area of mineral functional materials and adjusting surface charge; Application technology of mineral functional materials in industrial wastewater treatment.

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