Since 2025, China's colloidal silica industry has witnessed multiple breakthroughs in technological R&D and market application. The localization process of electronic-grade products has been accelerated, the penetration rate of environmentally friendly preparation processes has increased significantly, and the application boundaries in emerging fields such as new energy and biomedicine have continued to expand. The industry as a whole is transforming towards high added value and low environmental load.

In the high-end electronic materials sector, key progress has been made in the localization verification of electronic-grade colloidal silica. According to industry data, the localization rate of colloidal silica for semiconductor chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries in China has risen to 42% in 2025. Some products have reached the international advanced level of 3σ1.5nm in wafer global flatness control, which can meet the polishing requirements of processes below 10nm. In addition, the demand for special passivation colloidal silica for N-type TOPCon photovoltaic cells has shown explosive growth with an annual growth rate of over 200%. The market size of this niche segment is expected to exceed 1.5 billion yuan in 2025, and the performance of related products in improving battery conversion efficiency has passed the production line verification of leading photovoltaic enterprises.

Green preparation processes have become the core direction of technological innovation in the industry. The market share of ammonium-free production processes has climbed to 36% in 2025, an increase of 21 percentage points compared with 2020. This process can effectively reduce ammonia-nitrogen wastewater discharge during production, and the wastewater treatment cost per ton of products has decreased by about 12%. At the same time, the low-energy plasma-assisted preparation technology has also entered the pilot scale-up stage. Using quartz as raw material, it abandons toxic silicon sources in traditional processes, and its carbon emissions are reduced by more than 60% compared with the traditional flame hydrolysis method, providing a new path for the low-carbon transformation of the industry.

In emerging application fields, functional modified colloidal silica products have continued to be put into practice. In the biomedicine field, colloidal silica with a particle size control accuracy of ±3nm, used as a lyoprotectant for mRNA vaccines, has completed multiple rounds of stability tests, and the import substitution process is accelerating. In the new energy field, its application in lithium battery separator coatings has achieved breakthroughs. Separators added with modified colloidal silica have a 40% improvement in high-temperature resistance, which can effectively reduce the risk of battery thermal runaway, and related products have entered the supply chain of power battery enterprises.

Industry analysis indicates that the overall market size of domestic colloidal silica is expected to exceed 12 billion yuan in 2025, with an annual compound growth rate maintained above 12.8%. Among them, the market size of high-end special silica sol is expected to reach 2.8 billion yuan. The high gross profit margin of 65%-70% for semiconductor-grade products is driving enterprises to increase R&D investment. The tightening of environmental policies and the release of downstream emerging demand will further promote the industry's upgrade towards "high purity, customization, and greenization".