During the past 11 years, governments and companies worldwide have invested an estimated $60–$70 billion in nanotechnology research.^1–3 Markets for nano-technology-based products are expected to grow from $147 billion in 2007 to $3.1 trillion by 2015. Close to 2,000 companies—mostly in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan—work exclusively on nanotechnology-based products and produced 2,000–5,000 new patents each year since 2007.^4–7 The results of these efforts are reflected in electronics (thinner flat screens, faster and smaller computers, more reliable satellite communications), medicine and cosmetics (more effective drug-delivery, fewer side effects, lower costs), food and agriculture (lower toxicity agrochemicals, additives, colorants, preservatives), and instrumentation techniques (atomic force and high-resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy). These products significantly improve the quality of life of the millions of people who use them.

Despite their significant impact, the benefits of nanotechnology in other industrial fields, such as refractories, are less obvious because of three factors. First, relatively few people have direct involvement with refractory processes, which means that most people are unaware of what refractory brick or castables are or do. Second, numerous variables make measuring the benefit produced by a single modification in a castable or brick formulation difficult. Third, confidentiality issues regarding some developments and projects preclude information about them from reaching the media. Notwithstanding the almost complete absence of statistics on these factors, the number of publications and patents, and the research funding related to nanotechnology in refractory materials grows each year, evidence of promising results and a constant search for innovation and excellence.^4,8,9