What is hydrophobic fumed silica and Why Do We Use Them?

Hydrophobic silicas are a unique class of materials with a wide variety of functional attributes and beneficial properties making it ideal for numerous applications ranging from adhesives, greases, and sealants to personal care and processing aid products. At Applied Material Solutions, we offer high-quality fumed and precipitated hydrophobic silicas to provide superior performance for your products.

Benefits of Hydrophobic Silica

 Hydrophobic silica has several different benefits that make it a crucial ingredient in many different compounds across diverse industries. These benefits include:

• Adsorbent. Hydrophobic silica adsorbs solid, liquid, and gaseous materials to easily convert liquids and pastes into powder. This allows for easier handling and dosing.
• Anti-Blocking. Its anti-blocking properties prevent film sheets from sticking together due to static or other interactions.
• Anti-Sagging. Hydrophobic silica increases sag resistance, making it especially useful for paints and coatings as it prevents them from drooping or running while wet.
• Anti-Setoff. Hydrophobic silica prevents setoff, or the accidental transfer of ink between printed pages. It can be used to create anti-setoff sprays and powders.
• Anti-Setting. It can be used in chemicals to slow pigment or paint dry times, especially on metallic surfaces. This is a key additive in paints and coatings, especially for use on larger or more complex projects that require more time for application.
• Free Flow of Powders. Hydrophobic silica acts as an anti-caking material to prevent powders from caking or hardening. It controls the moisture to keep each particle separate and defined for free-flowing distribution or use.
• Foam Control. Hydrophobic silica can be used as an active ingredient in defoamers, which reduce or minimize foam, making it ideal for adhesives, paints, food applications, and more.
• Hydrophobicity Control. Hydrophobic silica naturally repels water and forces it to form droplets. Adding this material to compounds allows manufacturers to enhance hydrophobicity control in a product.
• Mechanical and Optical Properties Improvements. Adding hydrophobic silica can improve the clarity, transparency, durability, and other attributes of materials.
• Reinforcement. Hydrophobic silica reinforces the elastomeric properties of certain materials. It can increase the material&#;s tensile strength, resistance to tearing, and stabilization in the face of temperature changes.
• Pigment Stabilization and Dispersion. Adding hydrophobic silica to pigments can make the liquid material more stable and easier to disperse evenly. This allows for a more reliable application of complex pigments.
• Print Definition. Hydrophobic silica can reduce runoff, smudging, and other errors that reduce print definition and clarity. Inks with hydrophobic silica additives are clearer, crisper, and more precise.
• Processability Improvements. Carefully adding quantities of hydrophobic silica to pigments, inks, sealants, and personal care products allows for more precise application and better processing.
• Rheology Control. Hydrophobic silica can control the suspension of particles in water-based materials to ensure product consistency throughout the batch or container.
• Thickening. It can thicken pigments, sealants, adhesives, and other products to prevent running and poor application control.
• Thixotropy. Hydrophobic silica makes thick compounds thinner when they&#;re shaken, stirred, or otherwise disturbed. This temporary fluidity allows for easier mixing and preparation.
• Suspension and Stability Behavior. Hydrophobic silica can stabilize complex fluid products and consistently suspend a mix of ingredients throughout the batch.

Choose Applied Material Solutions for Hydrophobic Silica

At Applied Material Solutions, our top-quality fumed and precipitated hydrophobic silicas offer reinforcement and enhanced performance for products across a diverse range of industries. Our state-of-the-art treated silica production facility allows us to produce large volumes and reduce delivery times for our customers. To learn more about the properties and applications of hydrophobic silica, check out our product page today.

Our hydrophobic (treated) fumed silica powders provide exceptional performance benefits for a wide variety of applications and industries.

Our CAB-O-SIL® hydrophobic fumed silica products are used around the world to meet our customers&#; challenging performance requirements. Due to the combination of particle characteristics and surface chemistry, CAB-O-SIL hydrophobic fumed silicas provide superior performance benefits for many types of applications, including:

Performance benefits

For systems requiring hydrophobic grades, our treated fumed silicas deliver a number of performance benefits including:

• Reduced moisture adsorption
• Anti-settling, thickening and sag resistance in polar systems
• Scratch and abrasion resistance
• Free-flow and anti-caking
• Corrosion resistance
• Reinforcement