In March 2026, the domestic hydrophilic fumed silica industry has witnessed dual breakthroughs in technology and application, with green manufacturing and high-end substitution becoming the main themes of the sector.

As a nanoscale basic material, hydrophilic fumed silica is widely used in water-based coatings, photovoltaic films, electronic packaging, biomedicine and other fields due to its excellent thickening, thixotropic, reinforcing and dispersion stability. Recently, the industry has focused on low-carbon production innovation: the pilot production of a new-generation plasma method has been launched, which greatly reduces energy consumption and significantly improves by-product recovery rate compared with the traditional flame hydrolysis process, in line with the green transformation goal under the "dual carbon" strategy.

Meanwhile, the optimization of microchannel combustion reactor technology has further improved batch stability and purity control, reducing metal impurity content to a lower level to meet the strict standards of electronic and pharmaceutical grades.

The application market continues to expand, with water-based coatings and new energy as the main growth drivers. Demand for hydrophilic fumed silica in low-VOC environmental coatings is steadily rising, and its consumption in photovoltaic films and power battery sealing materials is growing rapidly, driving a surge in demand for high-end products.

At present, domestic production capacity is steadily increasing, but there is still room for import substitution in high value-added products such as electronic grade and pharmaceutical grade. Technological innovation has become the key to breakthrough.

Industry analysts predict that the industry will accelerate its transformation toward low-carbon, high-end and customized development in the next few years. Green processes and high-purity products will become core competitiveness, and the voice of domestic materials in the global supply chain will continue to increase.