With the pandemic still raging, supply chain disruptions, the chip shortage, climate catastrophes, and geopolitical turbulence, it is safe to say 2021 has not been smooth sailing. The materials and chemical sector provides the backbone of every industry and remains under pressure from all these challenges. In this article, IDTechEx highlights the key news from their independent perspective on this crucial industry.

Tuesday 16 November 2021 - An Array of Choices for Battery and Energy Storage Technology. Pros and cons of solid-state batteries compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries, the current market status, future trends, and pack design consideration; Special form factor enabled by solid-state batteries; and much more.

Friday 12 November 2021 - covering recent progress with smart cities and what is likely to happen in 2022. It deals with both new cities and existing ones that are radically modernising. Learn how the objectives are now far more ambitious

We are looking for entrepreneurial, enthusiastic people to join IDTechEx to apply their technical knowledge. You will be involved with technology scouting, market research and consultancy in a rapidly growing, exciting, global firm.

IDTechEx currently have a number of healthcare, food and agtech webinars available to watch on-demand. These include presentations on robotic surgery, vertical farming, plant-based and cultured meat, advances in agtech and skin analysis technologies.

Wednesday 13 January 2021 - This webinar, presented by IDTechEx Chairman Dr Peter Harrop, explains how, of the trillions of dollars being spent on smart cities, the advanced materials part is rising to hundreds of billions yearly.

IDTechEx have released a brand new report, "Smart Cities Emerging Materials Markets 2021-2041" - a comprehensive analysis of multifunctional smart materials, bioplastics, structural electronics, composites, 3D printing, graphene, 2D and 3D molecules, 5G, 6G, IOT, new recycling.

18 November 2020 - The expenditure on new technologies for emerging smart cities will pass one trillion dollars yearly. That is the subject of this webinar -sharing some of the research carried out by PhD level multilingual IDTechEx analysts worldwide for their new overview report on smart city technologies with 35 forecasts.

IDTechEx have released a new market research report on the topic of smart cities markets - trillions of dollars on reinvented energy, food, water, transport, sensing, multipurpose materials.

In 2018, China enacted its "National Sword" policy, effectively banning the import of most waste plastics and materials heading for the nation's recycling processors in an attempt to stop the wave of soiled and contaminated materials that were overwhelming the country's processing facilities and threatening it with a major environmental problem.

The new IDTechEx report, "Sensors 2021-2041" uniquely analyses the whole subject in the light of such seismic changes as the COVID-19 virus. The sensor business is in turmoil. The industries that spend most on sensors are changing as are the sensors.

Plastic is everywhere, and that is the problem. There is a huge drive to address the concerns that consumers and industry alike have regarding the longevity of plastic in the environment.