The smart polymers market is a niche market, but has tremendous potential opportunities in the automotive, targeted drug delivery, textile, sports goods, color cosmetics, and food packaging end-use industries. Technological advancements and increased investment in Research & Development (R&D) in North America had made it the biggest market for smart polymers, globally. The region boasts of more than 50% of the smart polymers manufacturers. Smart polymers are also known as stimuli-responsive polymers that show their activities as a response to different external stimuli such as pH change, UV light, temperature change, pressure, magnetic or electric field, and enzymatic changes. The ability of smart polymers to respond to very minor changes in the surrounding environment is an important characteristic of the polymers, which makes them ‘smart’. The uniqueness of these polymers is that the microscopic changes that occur in their structure are fast and reversible. The smart polymers show their responses as changes in the shape, surface characteristic, solubility, a solution-gel transition, among other ways. The design of smart polymers is mostly based on their applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, bio-separation, composite manufacturing, and textile engineering.

The smart polymers market was valued at USD 634.2 Million in 2016. Increasing adoption of smart polymers in the automotive and drug delivery sectors, development of smart textiles, and rising need for efficient drug delivery systems is expected to drive the global smart polymers market during the forecast period. Smart polymers are classified into three types based on the external environmental stimuli to which they respond. The types are physical stimuli responsive polymers, chemical stimuli responsive polymers, and biological stimuli responsive polymers. Physical stimuli responsive polymers type is the most-widely used type of smart polymers due to high demand from end-use industries such as biomedical & biotechnology, automotive, and textiles. By end-use industry, smart polymers are classified into five segments, namely biomedical & biotechnology, textiles, electrical & electronics, automotive, and others. The biomedical & biotechnology industry is the largest end-use industry for smart polymers. The rising need for highly efficient polymers for the manufacture of effective drug delivery systems and phase separation processes is expected to drive the smart polymers market in this end-use industry during the forecast period. North America is expected to be the largest market for smart polymers and is also projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The US is expected to account for the largest share of the market in North America till 2022 and is also expected to be the fastest-growing market for smart polymers during the forecast period.

Smart Polymers Market vendors are placed into 4 categories based on their performance and reviews in each criterion: “visionary leaders,” “innovators,” “dynamic differentiators,” and “emerging companies".

Visionary leaders are the leading market players in terms of new developments such as product launches, innovative technologies, and the adoption of growth strategies. These players have a broad product offering that caters to most of the regions globally. Visionary leaders primarily focus on acquiring the leading market position through their strong financial capabilities and their well-established brand equity.

Dynamic Differentiators are established players with very strong business strategies. However, they have a weaker product portfolio compared to the visionary leaders. They generally focus only on a specific type of technology related to the product.

Innovators in the competitive leadership mapping are vendors that have demonstrated substantial product innovations as compared to their competitors. The companies have focused on product portfolios. However, they do not have very strong growth strategies for their overall business, when compared with the visionary leaders.

Emerging companies have niche product and service offerings. Their business strategies are not as strong as that of the established vendors. The emerging vendors include the new entrants in the market, emerging in terms of product portfolio and geographic reach, and require time to gain significant traction in the market.