In electronics, polishing, catalysts, papermaking, textiles, ceramics, refractories, precision casting, coatings and other industries, silica sol is a dispersion liquid of nano-silica.
The price of complete sets of silica sol equipment sold on the market varies greatly. The cheap silica sol is about 3,000 yuan per ton, while the very expensive silica sol can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan per ton. So, it's all silica sol, why is there such a big difference in price?
The reason is that the quality of the silica sol is different.
Silica sol is a dispersion of nano-silica, so it gives the impression that silica sol is a relatively simple product, and its components are nano-silica particles and a dispersion medium. However, the quality of silica sol is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
Particle size: For example, large particle size silica sol, the price of silica sol with particle size over 100 nanometers is relatively expensive, because its manufacturing cost is much higher than that of general particle size silica sol.
(2) Uniform particle size: The particle size distribution of silica sol using a complete set of silica gel equipment is very uniform. For example, the silica sol used to prepare CMP polishing liquid requires very uniform particle size, which is difficult to manufacture, and the manufacturing cost is also high. Relatively high. However, some silica sols have poor particle size uniformity, such as silica sols used in refractory materials, casting, concrete and other fields. The manufacturing process does not require strict particle size control, the production process is simple, the cost is low, and the price is naturally low.
(3) Product purity: For example, in the field of concrete, in terms of the purity of silica sol products, the purity requirements are not high, and the metal impurity content can reach thousands of PPM. Therefore, most of the silica sols in these fields use low-purity silica fume. It is produced from raw materials such as sodium silicate, and the cost of raw materials is low. For the polishing liquid on CMP wafers, the purity of silica sol is very high, and the metal impurity content should be controlled below 1PPM. The purity of the raw materials for the production of this type of silica sol has high requirements on manufacturing equipment and production environment, and is also used for product inspection. In addition to expensive instruments such as ICPMASS, the production cost is very high, and the price of silica sol can reach tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands per ton.
(4) Special silica sol: Some silica sol complete equipment manufacturers need to carry out in-depth treatment of certain silica sols, and then make special silica sols after modification, such as surface-modified silica sols, organic silica sols, etc. The sol is much more complex, and the production cost naturally rises, and the price of these special silica sols will naturally be higher.
At present, the silica sols on the market include large particle size silica sol, particle diameter silica sol, acid silica sol, neutral silica sol, ammonium type silica sol, sodium type silica sol, calcium carbonate silica sol, silica sol, silica sol, There are more than ten varieties of microcrystalline silica sol, silica sol, and modified silica sol. The raw materials and production technologies produced by various silica sols are very different, and their prices are also very different.
