Sales of products incorporating emerging nanotechnology will rise from less than 0.1 percent of global manufacturing output today to 15 percent in 2014, totaling $2.6 trillion. This value will approach the size of the information technology and telecom industries combined, and will be 10 times larger than biotechnology revenues, according to a new report by Lux Research Inc. (New York). However, sales of basic nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and quantum dots, will total only $13 billion in 2014. "Nanotechnology's economic impact will arise from how these fundamental building blocks are used, not from sales of the materials themselves," says Matthew Nordan, Lux vice president of research.

Nordan refutes the popular misconception that nanotechnology is an industry or a sector. Rather, he insists that "nanotechnology is a set of tools and processes for manipulating matter that can be applied to virtually any manufactured good." He urges manufacturers to "focus on how nanotechnology is being exploited across industry value chains, from basic materials to intermediate products to final goods." By 2014, Nordan predicts that 4 percent of general manufactured goods, 50 percent of electronics and IT products, and 16 percent of goods in healthcare and life sciences will incorporate emerging nanotechnology.