Spherical aluminum oxide

1.  Spherical alumina market expansion, broad prospects

In many thermal conductivity materials, spherical alumina has become the "star material", new energy vehicles and 5G and other high-energy fields to promote the application of spherical alumina in the field of thermal management, spherical alumina demand increases, the market continues to expand.  In addition to being used as heat conduction material, spherical alumina is also widely used in advanced ceramics, catalysis, grinding and polishing, composite materials and so on.

2.  Pursue the meaning of "sphericity"

Alumina and hydrate of crystal structure and unique physical and chemical properties, decided to them in the electronic, petrochemical industry, refractories, ceramics, abrasives, paper making, pharmacy, and aerospace and other fields have a wide range of applications, the application in many fields and alumina products and raw material powder particle morphology and size has great relations, in the different shapes of powder particles,  Spherical particles have regular morphology, small specific surface area, large bulk density and good fluidity, which can greatly improve the application performance of products.

For example: spherical powder has good pressing molding and sintering characteristics, for the production of high-quality ceramic products is very beneficial;  As a polishing material, spherical alumina can avoid scratches.  In the petrochemical industry, the pore size distribution and pore structure of alumina carrier are increasingly required. The pore size distribution and distribution of catalyst carrier particles formed by spherical alumina powder can be controlled by adjusting the particle size configuration.  Spherical alumina used directly as catalyst can reduce wear and prolong the service life of catalyst, thus reducing production costs.

3.  It is favored by new energy vehicles, 5G and other emerging fields

The heat conduction material is the most important application of spherical alumina.  Spherical alumina can be divided into thermal interface materials, thermal engineering plastics, thermal aluminum base copper clad plate, thermal plastic sealing materials, etc.  The thermal interface material is used for IC packaging and electronic heat dissipation materials, can fill the two materials combined or contact generated micro gap, so as to reduce the impedance formed in the process of heat transfer and improve the heat dissipation, spherical alumina is common in the thermal interface material inorganic filler, thermal conductivity up to 30~42W/m·K.

The main thermal interface materials of the three-power system of new energy vehicles

(1) Battery: Power battery is the core of new energy vehicles. With the growth of sales of new energy vehicles, the installation of power battery at home and abroad grows simultaneously. According to GGII data estimates, from 2018 to 2022, the global installation of power battery increases from 100GWh to 450GWh, and the installation of Power battery in China increases from 57GWh to 230GWh.  The adhesive effectively improves the performance of the power battery.  In power battery assembly, adhesives are widely used in PACK sealing, structural bonding, structural thermal conductivity, battery sealing and other aspects, to provide safety protection, lightweight design, thermal management and other functions, for the power battery to achieve lasting, stable, efficient, safe operation has played a key role.  New energy vehicle power battery adhesive spherical alumina demand will grow rapidly;  

(2) Electric control: the rigid interface between IGBT module and cold surface is coated with thermal silicone grease to reduce heat barrier;  

(3) Motor: in the driving motor, the stator is used to generate rotating magnetism, and the stator is generally sealed with a high thermal conductivity adhesive.

In the 5G era, the heat dissipation problem of electronic products will be solved.

With 5 g communication equipment, electronic products, such as the high-end smartphones function has become increasingly complex and development trend of miniaturization, solve the problem of electronic product heating radiator core components become imperative, upgrading the can meet the cooling requirements of the development of thermal interface materials, catalyst as a thermal conductive filler spherical alumina powder is not only to be continued growth in demand,  Moreover, more demands are put forward for the purity, particle size modification and radioactivity requirements of the filler, and the market demand and development prospect of the thermal conductivity filler are becoming more and more obvious.

4.  Important materials in the fields of ceramics and catalysis

Spherical powder with regular morphology, larger bulk density, good fluidity and other properties, can greatly improve the product energy.  Therefore, except in the field of thermal conductivity, spherical Al2O3 powder in ceramics, catalyst carrier and other fields have been widely used and studied.  

Ceramic materials  

Adding a certain amount of spherical alumina powder in the production process of ceramics will greatly change the properties of ceramics.  The low temperature brittleness of ceramics greatly affects the application range of ceramics. The ceramic materials with spherical alumina powder can be used to manufacture low temperature resistant plastic ceramics.  In addition, spherical alumina can greatly improve the toughness of ceramics, when the content of spherical alumina powder is 5.0%, it can effectively improve the toughness of ceramics and reduce the sintering temperature.  

Polishing abrasive  

Compared with traditional granular or flake alumina, spherical alumina has better dispersion and fluidity.  Spherical alumina powder abrasive can be evenly distributed in the polished product, there will be no abnormal accumulation of powder, and the particle surface is smooth, can avoid scratches on the workpiece surface, so as to improve the polishing surface finish.  

Catalyst and its carrier  

Because there are a lot of unsaturated chemical bonds on the surface of alumina, there are a lot of catalytic active centers, so it shows a high chemical activity.  Moreover, spherical alumina has the advantages of small particle wear, long service life and large specific surface area.  Therefore, the performance of catalyst and catalyst carrier made of spherical alumina cannot be replaced by other materials.  

3D printed materials  

Spherical alumina is the most commonly used material for 3D printing because of its high strength, high spheroidization rate and high temperature resistance.  Spherical alumina powder has the advantages of high solid content, good fluidity, easy cleaning and high mechanical properties because of its good particle fluidity, chemical reaction rate and stacking property.