“I just want to say one word to you: Plastics.”

— Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke) giving career advice to Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) in the 1967 film The Graduate

Back in the day, Mr. McGuire had that right. Plastics seemed like a miracle innovation in the post-World War II era. Here was progress epitomized: It took the form of a cheaply produced synthetic that could be used to make of everything from buttons to nylons to aircraft components.

That was then. Nearly 60 years after The Graduate was made, the world is contending with 350 million metric tons of plastic waste. You could fill over 10 million garbage trucks with that, if you felt so inclined.

Still, science is an evolutionary exercise. And materials science, the field that brought us plastics in the first place, continues to advance. Developments such as nanotechnology, 3D printing and quantum computing are moving it along rapidly.

Can this discipline—one that connects engineering, chemistry and physics—really redeem itself with new life-, time- and energy-saving products that reduce or eliminate waste?

Observers are betting it can. The global advanced materials market size is projected to hit $112.7 billion by 2032, at a CAGR of 6.27 percent from 2023 to 2032.

Graphene: a superstar material

So who are the players on top of the trend and what are they proffering? One company worthy noting is CVD Equipment (CVV), a maker of the revolutionary product graphene. Graphene is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in sheets and is used to produce solar panels, electronics and other goods.

In Q3, CVD reported revenue of $6.2 million. That was up 21.6 percent compared to the previous quarter but down 23.2 percent year over year. Still, at least one analyst is predicting investors can nearly double their money at the end of 2024 if they buy CVD stock now.

Shape-shifting nitinol

Also on the watchlist: Abbott Laboratories (ABT), which is manufacturing nitinol stents for use in minimally invasive heart procedures. Nitinol, a metal alloy made of atomic nickel and titanium with superelastic properties, can change shape as needed when temperature is applied. So it can enter the body in one form, then revert to its original contour to perform its function once inside.

While this alloy has been around for about 50 years, new 3D printing techniques have simplified how it is produced, and that should benefit Abbott. The enterprise has gotten the market’s attention, earning a broad consensus rating of “buy”. The company’s Q3 sales were up by over 11 percent, while sales in emerging territories also grew by a healthy 8.8 percent, too.

The whole market for shape memory alloys—nitinol is just one of many such products—looks extremely healthy and could reach $47 billion over the next decade or so. Investors would be wise to keep a close watch on companies producing them.

Cloaking crystals

Another big name in materials development is BASF ((OTCMKTS:BASFY). The firm’s venture capital arm recently invested in Phomera Metamaterials Inc., a company that makes photonic crystals.

Metamaterials are synthetic elements that perform in ways that’d you’d never see in nature. Photonic crystals fit the bill because they can manipulate the behavior of light in odd ways—making it appear to respond to gravity, for example.

When used in conjunction with electronics, the crystals can perform all kinds of wonders. They’re already used to create color-changing paints. Fun stuff. But in the future, they could be behind the kind of cloaking devices familiar to fans of Star Trek. Think of the applications for defense.

BASF is displaying a forward-thinking frame of mind by upping its investment in photon crystals. Yes, the firm’s sales in Q3 dropped by over $6 billion compared to the previous year and its income fell, too. But at least one rating organization attributes this to a general weakening in the chemical sector and gives the firm an ‘A’ rating for its overall stability.

Shrilk to the rescue

And about that plastic waste? Biome Technologies (BIOM) thinks it has the problem licked. The enterprise is big into bioplastics. The best known bioplastic is Shrilk—a product derived from shrimp shells and silk, and is as strong as aluminum at half the weight. The Global Shrilk Market could reach $970.32 million by 2030.

Biome’s stated goal is to replace all conventional plastics eventually with this new breed of polymer. The market is listening. The group had revenues of £3.6 million ($4.5 million) in the first six months of 2023, an increase of 47 percent over the same period in 2022, largely on the strength of its bioplastics division.

So here are two words for our latest graduates: Materials science. With any kind of luck the field will improve our world—just as plastics did in their heyday, but without the downside.

Original: Investing Feed: Material Alchemy: Investing in Firms Making Magical New Products