Market Overview
Phosphorene is the single or few-layer form of black phosphorus with band gap in its molecular structure. In 2014, it was first isolated by scientists with the help of mechanical exfoliation technology. Owing to its molecular structure, the material offers excellent anisotropic electronic, optoelectronic, transport, thermoelectric, and mechanical properties. In addition, its puckered structure varies significantly from the structure of transition-metal dichalcogenides and graphene. Owing to its unique structure and chemical properties, it is identified as potential substitute for graphene in electronics applications such as fabrication of transistors, developing Solar-cell material, developing flexible nano systems, and others.
Currently, there is no commercial application of phosphorene but considering increasing volume of research work targeted for unlocking the applications of the material, it is expected that the commercialization of the phosphorene market will begin within next 5 years.
The global phosphorene market has been segmented by structure, application, and geography. On the basis of structure, the phosphorene market is categorized into monolayer and multilayer. Monolayer offers a unique two-dimensional (2D) platform to analyze the fundamental many-body interactions. However, monolayer is very much unstable in nature. Therefore, it will be challenge for researchers to develop electronic applications based on monolayer. On contrary, multilayer offers much stable platform to develop different electronic applications. For example, silicon (Si) interaction with multilayer can result in the synthesis of highly stable 2d-SiP. In such context, it is expected that commercialization of multilayer variant will happen at a faster rate as compared to monolayer.
On the basis of application, the phosphorene market has been segmented into transistor, inverter, optoelectronics, and flexible circuits. Researchers have already fabricated transistors based on the material for examining its performance in actual devices. With the help of this experiment, it has been found that usage of the material can drastically decrease total resistance with reduction in gate voltage. Scientists have developed CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) inverter with the help of combination of PMOS (P-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic) transistor and MoS2 NMOS (N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic) transistor. This combination resulted in high heterogeneous integration of semiconducting crystals, which in turn can be used for electronics applications.
Market Dynamics
Growth drivers
The major growth drivers identified in the phosphorene market are the increasing growing demand for high performance semiconductor devices designed with layered materials. It has higher carrier mobility capacity, which makes it suitable for conducting electricity. In addition, the material can absorb ultraviolet (UV) light easily, which makes it suitable choice for optoelectronics applications. In addition, research works of scientists have also identified that the material can also be used to manufacture energy efficient semiconductor. Owing to these benefits, demand for the material is expected to grow exponentially in semiconductor and electronics industry post its commercialization.
Restraints
One major disadvantage of the material is its low air-stability. Owing to presence of hygroscopic phosphorus and extremely high surface-to-volume ratio, the material reacts quickly with water vapor and oxygen in presence of visible light. As a result of this reaction, the material gets degraded quickly in open air. Owing to this disadvantage, growth of the phosphorene market is expected to be hampered in coming years.
Insights by geography
On the basis of geography, the phosphorene market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). As of now, most of the research works regarding the material and its potential applications are concentrated in countries from North America and Europe. However, in coming years, it is expected that research interest for unlocking potential of the material will promulgate in Asia-Pacific region. In addition, being the major market for semiconductor foundry services, China, Taiwan, and Japan are expected to embrace it as potential semiconductor material in coming years.
