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In the third quarter of 2026, a landmark industrial progress in China's organic silicone material sector was officially announced: the new-generation full-process green production base covering three major categories of general-purpose dimethyl silicone oil, high-viscosity methyl silicone oil and modified special methyl silicone oil has officially achieved 100% full-load stable operation. The core indicators of the full-series products, including volatile matter control, viscosity stability and extreme working condition aging resistance, have fully reached the international top standards, and the performance of some special grades has surpassed overseas counterparts, completely breaking the nearly 40-year technological monopoly of overseas enterprises in the field of high-end methyl silicone oil. As the core basic category with the widest application scenarios and the most abundant downstream coverage in the organic silicone industry, methyl silicone oil is a key functional material connecting dozens of high-end manufacturing tracks such as electronic information, new energy, aerospace and biomedicine. The implementation of this full-chain production capacity marks that the independent controllability of China's entire industrial chain from basic monomer synthesis to downstream high-end products has completed a key milestone of supplementing the industrial chain, laying a solid underlying material foundation for the stable development of multiple downstream strategically emerging industries.
Looking back at the development course of China's methyl silicone oil industry over the past 60+ years, the evolution of the industry has always been accompanied by the demand pressure from downstream high-end manufacturing upgrading and continuous R&D efforts at the scientific research end. As early as the 1970s, China realized small-batch production of general-purpose dimethyl silicone oil. However, restricted by core technical shortcomings such as precise removal of low-molecular cyclic bodies, narrow molecular weight distribution regulation and directional grafting of special groups, domestic products have long been concentrated in low-to-medium end scenarios such as ordinary daily chemical additives and civil lubricant modification. Persistent industry pain points, including high volatile content, large viscosity fluctuation with temperature and easy aging failure under extreme working conditions, have never been completely solved, making it impossible to meet the strict requirements of extreme working conditions in new energy, biomedicine and other fields. For a long period, the import dependence of China's high-end methyl silicone oil categories, such as ultra-high molecular weight methyl silicone oil with a kinematic viscosity above 1 million mm²/s and electronic-grade methyl silicone oil with volatile matter lower than 0.1%, exceeded 94%. Overseas suppliers not only maintained high pricing for a long time, the price of some special grades was even 7-12 times that of ordinary domestic products, but also frequently restricted supply by imposing export controls, setting up technical barriers and extending delivery cycles, bringing great supply chain risks to the stable production of multiple strategically emerging industries in China. In 2023, a new energy industrial cluster in China was forced to temporarily reduce production of downstream photovoltaic module packaging production lines due to the supply interruption of overseas high-purity methyl thermal conductive silicone oil, resulting in direct economic losses of more than 150 million yuan, highlighting the hidden dangers of supply chain security.
Since 2024, the explosive growth of downstream emerging industries has directly driven the demand expansion of the methyl silicone oil market. Authoritative industry statistics show that in 2025, the overall market size of China's methyl silicone oil reached 29.6 billion yuan, with a total output exceeding 2.72 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%. Among them, high-purity and narrow molecular weight distribution special methyl silicone oil contributed more than 86% of the incremental demand. From the perspective of downstream demand structure, 38.7% of China's methyl silicone oil demand comes from the new energy lithium battery heat dissipation and photovoltaic module packaging field, 21.4% comes from the high-end precision electronic insulation and thermal conductivity scenarios, 13.8% comes from the biomedicine and special medical consumables field, and the remaining demand is distributed in segmented tracks such as aerospace damping media, high-end building seal modification and green environmental protection daily chemical additives. With the continuous large-scale delivery of China's new energy vehicle industry, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 13.5 million units in 2025, and the corresponding demand for methyl thermal conductive silicone oil for power battery liquid cooling systems increased by 48% year-on-year. At the same time, with the comprehensive construction of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases, the mass implementation of third-generation nuclear power technology and the large-scale delivery of commercial large aircraft, the demand growth rate for high-end methyl silicone oil has remained above 37% for three consecutive years. Traditional low-to-medium end products have been completely unable to match the performance requirements of downstream extreme working conditions, making the full-process technological upgrading at the industrial end extremely urgent.
The core technological breakthroughs of this new generation of full-series production line cover the full chain links from basic monomer pretreatment to finished product post-treatment. On the raw material side, the new continuous vacuum distillation coupled with molecular sieve deep adsorption purification process increases the purity of basic synthetic monomers such as dimethylcyclosiloxane to 99.995%, controlling the moisture, chloride ion and metal ion impurities in the raw material below 3ppm, 1ppm and 8ppb respectively, avoiding the problems of runaway polymerization reaction, excessively wide molecular weight distribution and later product thermal stability decline caused by impurities from the source. In the polymerization reaction stage, the independently developed controllable active anionic ring-opening catalytic system realizes precise narrow regulation of the molecular weight distribution of methyl silicone oil, with the molecular weight distribution index controlled within 1.03, far lower than the industry average of 1.3 in traditional processes. The viscosity-temperature coefficient of the product is as low as 0.58, and the viscosity fluctuation does not exceed 5% in the wide temperature range of -60℃ to 280℃, completely solving the long-standing industry pain point of "unstable high and low temperature performance and high volatile content of products caused by wide molecular weight distribution". In the post-treatment link, the application of the 12-stage high-vacuum thin-film evaporation coupled with supercritical extraction deep devolatilization system controls the volatile matter of the product below 0.08%, far lower than the industry average of 0.5% in traditional processes, even better than the 0.12% control standard of overseas top-tier similar products, completely solving the long-standing industry problem of high-end downstream equipment that low-molecular substances are prone to precipitate under high-temperature working conditions, leading to seal failure and poor contact of electronic components. At the same time, the new closed-loop low-molecular recovery and circulation system replaces the traditional direct-discharge treatment process, reducing the waste discharge in the production process by 98.7%, the energy consumption per unit product by 61%, and the organic waste gas emission in the production process by 95%. While greatly improving product quality, it also achieves the industrial upgrading goal of green and low-carbon production, fully meeting the upgrading requirements of the domestic organic silicone new material industry under the "dual carbon" goal.
The most direct value brought by technological upgrading is the performance breakthrough in core downstream application scenarios. In the new energy lithium battery field, the new generation of high-purity methyl thermal conductive silicone oil is used as the immersion cooling medium for power batteries, which maintains stable thermal conductivity in the wide temperature range of -55℃ to 220℃. The thermal conductivity retention rate after 5000 hours of long-term cycle service exceeds 98%, and the insulation performance retention rate after 1500 hours of high-temperature and high-humidity aging test exceeds 99%, fully meeting the high-rate charge-discharge heat dissipation requirements of the power battery throughout its life cycle. Even in the initial stage of power battery thermal runaway, the cooling medium can maintain a stable chemical structure, quickly take away heat to delay the spread speed of thermal runaway, greatly improving the safety performance of the power battery. Previously, the core raw material of this high-end thermal conductive silicone oil was completely dependent on imports. The implementation of domestic products directly reduces the comprehensive production cost of China's new energy power battery immersion cooling system by 38%, further consolidating the global competitive advantage of China's new energy vehicle industry. In the packaging film modification scenario of photovoltaic modules, after adding high-purity methyl silicone oil as a leveling agent, the surface flatness of the adhesive film is increased by 62%, and the service life in the high-altitude strong ultraviolet environment is extended from 28 years to 41 years, greatly reducing the later maintenance cost of photovoltaic equipment and improving the full-life-cycle power generation efficiency of photovoltaic power stations.
In the field of precision electronics, the high-purity methyl insulating silicone oil is used to prepare the insulating filling medium for high-end transformers. After long-term service in a strong electric field environment, the breakdown voltage retention rate exceeds 94%. It has now been batch applied in multiple UHV transmission projects and data center server immersion cooling systems in China, completely solving the long-standing "stuck neck" problem of core material supply chain that plagues China's high-end power equipment industry. In the aerospace field, the specially modified high-damping methyl silicone oil is filled into the damping system of aerospace structural parts as the core medium, maintaining stable damping performance in the temperature range of -70℃ to 260℃, and the vibration attenuation efficiency is increased by 43%, greatly improving the fatigue resistance of aerospace structural parts and extending the service life of structural parts. In the field of nuclear power equipment, the nuclear-grade purified methyl silicone oil is used to prepare the sealing damping medium. After long-term service in a strong radiation environment, the performance retention rate exceeds 93%, fully meeting the damping requirements of the reactor control rod drive mechanism of third-generation nuclear power units, and has been batch applied in multiple newly built third-generation nuclear power units in China.
In the field of biomedicine, the medical-grade methyl silicone oil after special multi-stage purification has a trace toxic impurity dissolution far lower than the requirements of the ISO 10993 medical material standard. The prepared medical defoamer and ophthalmic surgery filling medium have a biocompatibility up to the highest Class VI standard, and have been successfully applied in high-end medical consumables such as intravenous infusion defoaming, ophthalmic retinal detachment reattachment surgery and implantable drug sustained-release carriers, greatly improving the safety of domestic high-end medical polymer materials, reducing the production cost of high-end medical consumables, and allowing more patients to use cost-effective domestic medical consumables. In the field of precision manufacturing, the electronic-grade high-purity methyl silicone oil is used to prepare the release agent for semiconductor chips, which shows excellent release performance in the chip manufacturing of 14nm advanced process, with the surface residue controlled below 0.3ng/cm², effectively supporting the mass production demand of domestic advanced process chips, and providing key material guarantee for the independent and controllable development of China's semiconductor industry.
With the gradual release of domestic high-end production capacity, the market supply structure of methyl silicone oil is undergoing fundamental changes. In the past two years, China's methyl silicone oil industry has gradually bid farewell to the extensive low-end capacity expansion model. A large number of small and medium-sized production capacities with substandard environmental protection and backward technical levels have exited in an orderly manner. The industry concentration has continued to increase, and resources are accelerating to gather in leading enterprises with full-chain R&D strength. In 2026, the market size of methyl silicone oil core raw materials in China is expected to exceed 35 billion yuan, among which the market share of special high-end methyl silicone oil will further increase to 54%, and the localization rate of high-end products is expected to exceed 75% by the end of the year. At the global market level, the global market size of methyl silicone oil core raw materials in 2026 is about 11.2 billion US dollars, and it is expected to grow to 22.8 billion US dollars at a compound annual growth rate of 9.2% from 2026 to 2034. As the world's largest emerging market for methyl silicone oil, China is gradually shifting from product import to independent supply and technology output, occupying a more core position in the global organic silicone new material industrial chain. Some domestic high-end methyl silicone oil products have begun to be exported to Europe, Southeast Asia and other markets in batches, and have been recognized by overseas users with their excellent performance and stable supply capacity.
Industry experts point out that the full-series technological breakthrough and capacity implementation of high-end methyl silicone oil is a landmark event for China's organic silicone industry to shift from "general-purpose scale leadership" to "full-chain independent control of key basic materials". In the past, China's organic silicone industry long focused on the scale expansion of end products, and was restricted by others in the field of high-end special methyl silicone oil, a key basic material connecting the upstream and downstream, for a long time. The full-process independent control of technology this time not only directly reduces the production cost of dozens of downstream high-end polymer new materials, but also opens up the full industrial chain technical barriers from basic silicon ore raw materials and synthetic monomers to high-end end products, opening up a new space for subsequent innovation of the entire industry. In the future, with the continuous iteration of downstream emerging industries, high-end methyl silicone oil will also achieve application breakthroughs in more cutting-edge scenarios such as solid-state battery electrolyte modification, insulating medium toughening for controllable nuclear fusion devices and flexible electronic substrate modification, providing solid underlying material support for the high-quality development of multiple strategically emerging industries in China.
