High-purity ultrafine magnesium oxide powder is an inorganic material. It has high purity (usually ≥98%) and ultrafine particle size (micron or nano scale). Its unique physicochemical properties include high purity, high specific surface area, excellent thermal stability, electrical insulation, and chemical inertness. These features make it irreplaceable in many high-tech fields.
Application Fields: Core Material in Multiple Sectors
Electronics and Semiconductor Industry
- Ceramic Substrates and Packaging Materials: Its high thermal stability, low dielectric constant, and high insulation properties make it ideal for electronic ceramic substrates. It is widely used in high-frequency circuit boards, semiconductor packaging, and chip manufacturing.
- Electrode Materials: In MLCC (Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors), it serves as the dielectric layer, improving capacitance and reliability.
- In OLED displays, it acts as a buffer layer, enhancing display performance.
New Energy and Energy Storage Fields
- Lithium Battery Cathode Materials: As an additive or coating material, it improves stability, suppresses structural collapse, and extends battery life.
- In solid-state electrolytes, it provides ionic conduction paths, aiding in the commercialization of solid-state batteries.
- Solar Cells: It is used as a dopant in the photoelectric conversion layer to optimize photoelectric efficiency. In perovskite solar cells, it serves as a buffer layer to enhance device stability.
- Fuel Cells: High-purity magnesium oxide enhances the proton conductivity of electrolyte materials, improving the power density and durability of fuel cells.
Aerospace and National Defense
High-Temperature Structural Materials:
With a melting point of 2852°C, it is used for aircraft engine parts, missile shells, and high-temperature coatings.
Radar Absorbing Materials:
When combined with polymers, it forms radar-absorbing coatings, improving stealth performance.
High-Performance Ceramics and Refractory Materials
- Ceramic Toughening Agents: When added to ceramics like alumina and silicon nitride, it refines the grain size, improving the toughness, bending strength, and wear resistance of ceramics. These are applied in cutting tools, high-temperature furnace parts, and other areas.
- Refractory Materials: It is used in the production of magnesium-based refractory bricks and high-temperature kiln coatings, extending the service life of equipment in high-temperature industries such as steel smelting and glass manufacturing.
Pharmaceuticals and Biomaterials
- Pharmaceutical Excipients: It serves as an antacid (neutralizing stomach acid), adsorbent (adsorbing toxins), and stabilizer, used as a filler in tablets and capsules. Nano-sized magnesium oxide is also used as a carrier material in targeted drug delivery systems.
- Biocompatible Materials: Used in bone repair materials, its degradation product Mg²⁺ promotes bone cell growth, with potential applications in orthopedic implants.
Chemical Industry and Environmental Protection
- Catalyst Carriers: With its high surface area and alkaline surface, it is an efficient carrier for catalysts (e.g., desulfurization catalysts), enhancing reaction rates and selectivity.
- Harmful Gas Adsorption: It adsorbs industrial waste gases like SO₂ and NOx, or removes heavy metal ions in water treatment, contributing to environmental protection.
Other Fields
- Optical Glass Polishing: The moderate hardness of ultrafine magnesium oxide particles makes it ideal for high-precision polishing of optical components such as lenses and prisms.
- Cosmetic Fillers: As a non-toxic, high-whiteness powder, it is used in sunscreens, foundations, and other cosmetics to provide coverage and texture modulation.
Challenges and Key Development Directions
Despite its promising prospects, high-purity ultrafine magnesium oxide still faces the following challenges:
- Process Optimization: Reducing agglomeration issues and improving batch stability. Developing green production methods, such as extracting magnesium from seawater, to reduce costs.
- Customized Performance: Developing specialized grades tailored for different applications (e.g., batteries, ceramics) by adjusting particle size, morphology, and surface characteristics.
- Standard System Improvement: Creating stricter purity and particle size standards for sectors like semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Conclusion
High-purity ultrafine magnesium oxide powder is known as “industrial monosodium glutamate” for its multifunctionality and high performance. It is increasingly being used in high-tech industries like new energy, electronics, and aerospace. In the future, its application will continue to expand. It will become a core material, addressing key challenges in energy transition, electronic upgrades, and environmental governance. Enterprises must keep up with technological advances and shift from material suppliers to solution providers.
