1. Coatings Industry
Amorphous silica has a refractive index of 1.457, which is close to that of conventional resin coatings. Therefore, amorphous silica is the preferred matting agent for high-quality coatings, offering excellent optical properties in varnishes to achieve matte and flatting effects.
As is well known, wind power is a environmentally friendly green new energy source. The adhesives used on wind turbine blades are strongly polar epoxy resin systems. Due to the large size and cross-sectional area of the blades, extremely high requirements are placed on bonding performance, strength, viscosity, anti-sagging properties, and anti-settling performance. Epoxy resin is a resin system with strong polar groups and high polarity. Generally, hydrophilic fumed silica is used, but it is prone to the solvent-type effect. That is, shortly after dispersion, the viscosity and suspension effect are excellent. However, after 7-10 days, the polar groups disrupt the hydrogen bonds forming the network structure, leading to hydrogen bond cleavage. This results in thinning, loss of thixotropy, filler settling, and other issues. Therefore, it is recommended to use strongly hydrophobic modified nano-scale fumed silica for wind blade adhesives, as it offers high stability and avoids the solvent-type effect.
2. Rubber Industry
Silica is widely used as an environmentally friendly rubber reinforcing agent. Silicone rubber possesses excellent properties such as high-temperature resistance, insulation, thermal insulation, chemical resistance, and stain resistance, playing an irreplaceable role in industries like defense, architectural decoration, and aerospace.
When used as a reinforcing agent in tire treads, it can reduce rolling resistance while maintaining excellent wet skid resistance. It also contributes to fuel savings and reduced vehicle emissions, while lowering rolling resistance by approximately 30%. This makes it a crucial raw material for manufacturing "green tires."
After AMI modification of silica particles, the interaction between particles decreases, and agglomeration is reduced. When used as a dopant in rubber, it promotes rubber vulcanization to some extent, resulting in a more orderly arrangement of rubber molecular chains.
3. Daily Life
In recent years, superabsorbent polymers have emerged as a new type of high-performance fine chemical product. They are widely used in industrial products, daily sanitary products, medical care, agriculture, construction, and other fields, with particularly growing demand in daily sanitary products and agricultural applications. Superabsorbent polymers are characterized by small particle size, high saline water absorption rate, fast absorption speed, and low residual monomers. They are commonly used in daily sanitary products such as baby diapers, adult diapers, ultra-thin diapers, sanitary napkins, pet pads, underpad, absorbent paper, airlaid paper, and toothpaste. In the production processes for baby diapers, incontinence pants, sanitary napkins, etc., the precise dosing of superabsorbent polymers is a critical step. The role of fumed silica in superabsorbent polymers is to increase the flowability of the polymer, prevent caking, facilitate the flow of the superabsorbent polymer in pipelines, avoid blockages, and improve production efficiency.
4. Biofiltration
Biofiltration is a typical air pollution control technology for treating volatile organic compounds. The mass transfer of hydrophobic volatile organic compounds to the biofilm is limited, resulting in low removal efficiency of the biofilm. To enhance the transfer of hydrophobic organic compounds, adding hydrophobic fumed silica to biofilters can achieve the removal of compounds such as pentane.
