The opportunity
Unlock novel functionalities, improve performance characteristics (e.g., strength, conductivity, efficiency), enable entirely new technologies, and drive innovation across diverse sectors from electronics to aerospace.
From “The BIG Future: New Materials Science” (February 2023)
I will admit that I never really considered the work that he did to be tremendously exciting or important; as a young child, it wasn’t like a lawyer, a doctor, or a banker. Those were exciting professions! And yet today, I look at the world of chemical science to be one of the most exciting - and far-reaching - aspects of our future. That’s because we are going from 25 million known chemical substances today to over 1 billion by the year 2100. As science accelerates, we are discovering fascinating new materials that promise to revolutionize what we build, how we build it, and what it is we can build. This new era promises an era of big, bold thinking as to what is possible, changing every industry from automotive to aerospace, consumer products to packaging, and more. It’s a revolution in the making!
How might this work? Imagine a solar cell on a piece of farmland - the top part is generating energy, and yet the sun goes straight through the cell to provide needed sunshine for the growth of crops. That’s a revolutionary idea and yet, might not be all that far away. The folks involved in this aspect of materials science speak of achieving maximum ’ energy conversion efficiency’ - that’s the ability of the solar cell to generate energy. With this new aspect of science, the highest values achieved so far have been 9.0% for the front side and 7.1% for the rear side, but they want to achieve a goal of 33%. They are already moving towards that! The cell yielded values of 19.8% for front illumination and 10.9% for rear illumination that had been independently certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg/Germany - in the very same cell on a glass substrate. What’s more, the team also succeeded in fabricating, for the very first time, a bifacial CIGS solar cell on a flexible polymer substrate, which - due to their light weight and flexibility - widens the spectrum of potential applications. And finally, the researchers combined two photovoltaic technologies - CIGS and perovskite solar cells - to produce a bifacial “tandem” cell. According to Tiwari, bifacial CIGS technology has the potential to yield energy conversion efficiencies beyond 33%, thus opening up further opportunities for thin film solar cells in the future.
Bottom line - materials science matters. And if it is moving faster, the stuff we use in our daily lives will happen faster; new products will be discovered faster; and potential big challenges will be solved faster. What’s critical to understand is that we are now moving into a new era accelerated by the acceleration of science. Everything we use is made of a material. The paper (or screen) on which you are reading this article, your clothes, and electrical devices, the building you are in, and even you, are made from different types of materials. We live in a ‘material world’.
From “Decoding Tomorrow: 30 Megatrends - #16 Material Science Breakthroughs: “We are moving beyond static objects to a world of living materials that heal, think, and reshape our reality.”” (July 2025)
We are experiencing unprecedented innovation in physical materials, everything from self-healing surfaces to programmable matter. These new substances enable product capabilities that were previously impossible.”
Materials? Chemistry? As a futurist, my mind was opened up back in 2004 as I was preparing for a talk for an environmental government ministry. Somewhere during my research, I came across two fascinating observations as to how fast the world of chemical science was evolving.
The list goes on. Essentially, this aspect of science affects virtually every industry – power and telecommunications, aerospace, construction, biomedical, energy, healthcare, automotive, and sustainable development. Even the acceleration of brain science, in that new materials might help lower the risk of infection for new probes that might be used in brain surgery, and the acceleration of computer-to-brain technology
From “Keynote: DuPont Leadership Meeting – Innovation and the Future of Science-Based Industry” (September 2012)
Jim Carroll delivered a keynote address to senior leadership at DuPont in 2012, exploring the innovation imperatives facing one of the world’s oldest and most storied science-based companies in a period of rapid industry disruption. DuPont, with nearly 210 years of history in chemistry, materials science, agriculture, and industrial biotechnology, represented exactly the kind of deep-capability organization that Carroll challenged to marry its scientific heritage with the speed and boldness of a startup. Carroll’s work with large industrial and science companies during this period consistently returned to the theme of “innovation and the 10 great words” — challenging leaders to articulate a clear, bold innovation mandate that could cascade through a complex global organization. The session reflected Carroll’s ongoing engagement with the manufacturing and materials science sector during a period when breakthrough science in genomics, nanotechnology, and advanced materials was beginning to reshape the competitive landscape of industrial chemistry.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
The BIG Future: New Materials Science
Decoding Tomorrow: 30 Megatrends - #16 Material Science Breakthroughs: “We are moving beyond static objects to a world of living materials that heal, think, and reshape our reality.”
Keynote: DuPont Leadership Meeting – Innovation and the Future of Science-Based Industry