As a new lightweight nano-solid material, silica aerogel industry has good development prospects

Silica aerogel is a new lightweight nano-solid material with thermal insulation and heat-proof properties. Silica aerogels are used in a wide range of fields, including aerospace, medicine, petrochemicals, catalysts, thermal insulation materials, etc.

According to the “2022-2027 Silica Airgel Industry Market Investment Space and Enterprise IPO Listing Environment Comprehensive Assessment Report》shows that aerogel, as one of the new materials, has the advantages of high efficiency, long service life, and lightweight compared with traditional materials. It is widely used in high-tech industries such as new energy vehicles, marine engineering, aerospace, and national defense and military. widely used in. In recent years, the global aerogel market demand has continued to grow, and it is expected that by 2030, the global aerogel market size will exceed 4 billion US dollars. As a segmented product in the airgel market, silica aerogel has the advantages of high industrialization and mature technology, accounting for nearly 70% of the aerogel market.

The production of silica aerogels requires gelling, aging, drying, modification and other processes. The sol-gel method is the key production process of silica aerogels. The sol-gel method uses water glass, sodium methyl silicate, and ethyl orthosilicate as raw materials, adds an appropriate amount of water and catalyst to form a polymer, and finally undergoes aging treatment to form silica aerogel. In the process of producing silica aerogels by the sol-gel method, the hydrolysis reaction rate needs to be controlled by adjusting the pH value to form rubber polymer particles composed of smooth microspheres.

The raw materials of silica airgel are functional silanes, silicon chloride, water glass, silica sol, etc. Functional silanes and silicon chloride are important raw materials for silica aerogels. my country is a major producer of functional silanes. In recent years, with the support of policy support, my country’s functional silanes production capacity has continued to expand. In 2021, my country’s functional silanes production capacity will exceed 550,000 tons, accounting for 61.3% of the world’s total production capacity. As the supply of raw materials further expands, my country’s silica aerogel production continues to increase.

New energy vehicles have higher requirements for thermal insulation materials. Compared with traditional thermal insulation materials, silica aerogel has the advantages of impact resistance, good thermal insulation effect, light weight, and stable performance. It is widely used in the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing. . In recent years, the prosperity of my country’s new energy vehicle industry has continued to improve, and its ownership has continued to grow. According to statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, in the first half of 2022, the number of new energy vehicles in my country reached 10.01 million, accounting for 3.2% of the total number of cars. Market demand will provide driving force for the development of the silica aerogel industry.

Industry analysts said that as my country’s research and development technology continues to make breakthroughs and innovations, the application fields of silica aerogels are gradually expanding. Driven by market demand, silica aerogel has become a mainstream product in the aerogel market, and the industry scale has continued to expand. With government policy support and rapid economic development, silica aerogels, as a new lightweight nano-solid material, will have broad market prospects.