my country’s nanosilica market continues to expand, and high-end product supply capabilities need to be improved

Nanosilica, also known as ultrafine silica, is an inorganic chemical material, referring to silica with a size range between 1.0~100.0nm. Nano-silica appears as an amorphous white powder with a microstructure of flocculent and reticular spherical particles. It is soluble in hydrofluoric acid and alkali, but insoluble in water and most organic solvents. Nanosilica has the advantages of good plasticity, strong adsorption, resistance to chemical corrosion, and anti-aging, and has been widely used in many fields.

The production process of nano-silica includes chemical method and physical method. Chemical methods include sol-gel method, microemulsion method, gas phase method, ion exchange method and precipitation method. The gas phase method uses organohalogenated silanes as raw materials, contacts hydrogen and oxygen under high temperature conditions, conducts full combustion, and then produces nano-silica through processes such as separation and deacidification. Nano-silica produced using the gas phase method has the advantages of small particle size and high purity, and is the mainstream production process of nano-silica.

Nano-silica is mainly used in aerospace, lithium batteries, chemical industry, rubber products, medicine, engineering plastics, feed additives and other fields. Rubber products are the main application areas of nano-silica, accounting for 30.0% of the demand. Nano-silica has the characteristics of good chemical stability, heat resistance, non-toxicity, and no pollution, and can be used to produce silicone rubber reinforcing materials. As the application fields continue to expand, the market demand for nanosilica in my country is becoming increasingly strong. According to the “2022-2027 China Nanosilica Industry Market Supply and Demand Research Consultation Report released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2021 my country’s nanosilica market size reached 9.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.9%.

In the global market, the main production capacity of nano-silica is concentrated in European and American countries. Leading companies include Grace Company of the United States and Evonik Industries of Germany. The above two companies have mastered the core production technology of high-end nano-silica and have competitive advantages in product variety, quality and output. As a global giant in the specialty chemical industry, Evonik ranks first in the world in terms of nanosilica production capacity.

In the local market, there are many nano-silica manufacturers in my country, but due to factors such as high technical barriers, high-end products are highly dependent on imports. Guangzhou Lingwei Technology Co., Ltd., Shanxi Tianyi Nano Materials Co., Ltd., and Beijing Aerospace Saide Technology Development Co., Ltd. are the main manufacturers of nanosilica in my country.

Industry analysts said that as a new high-tech inorganic functional material, nano-silica has excellent performance and wide range of uses. As local companies With the continuous deepening of research and development by scientific research institutions, the application scope of nano-silica will be further expanded. In recent years, driven by downstream demand, my country’s nanosilica market has continued to expand. However, currently, due to technical barriers, the supply of high-end nano-silica in my country is insufficient, which is the main challenge facing the development of the industry.