Silica (SiO2) and it’s different uses:

 Silica (SiO2) is found in hundreds of products and industries, from simple sand to space shuttle heat shields tiles.

The principal supplier AAFFG/AAC has vast deposits of raw silica ore of top grade hardness and purity suitable for uses which have the most stringent requirements.

  • It is nearly 100% pure
  • It is extremely hard quartz
  • It is so easily available and
  • It is so large

Initial production will fund entry into series of increasingly higher margin Silica-based products. Products range, for example, in order from simplest/cheapest to more complex/expensive:

  • Decorative silica stone and roadbed base rock
  • Fractioning sand (“frac sand”)- Frac sand slurry is used to fracture subterranean rock in oil and natural gas wells to revive production
  • Fumed silica
  • Optical fiber cable
  • Silica aerogel
  •   Silicon is a silica alloy used in the making of computer chips and solar panels.

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 Uses of Silica include:

  • Production of window glass, drinking glass and beverage bottles.
  • Optical fibers for telecommunications
  • Analytical instruments – UV spectrophotometer cells, military fire control devices, retied substrates, interferometer plates.
  • A primary raw material for many white ware ceramics such as earthenware, stoneware and porcelain as well as industrial Portland cement
  • An additive in the production of foods, pharmaceuticals and healthy supplements, where it is used primarily as a smoothing agent (think peanut butter) and as a flow agent in powdered products and in pill manufacture.

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  Further Uses of Silica:

  • As a raw material for aerogel in the stardust space craft
  • In the extraction of DNA & RNA due to its ability to bind to the nucleic acids under the presence of chaotropes
  • As a defoamer component
  • In toothpaste
  • As a refractory in fiber from as a high temperature thermal protection fabric.

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More Uses of Silica:

  • In cosmetics, it is useful for its light diffusing properties and natural absorbency.
  • Colloidal silica is used as a wine and juice fining agent