On December 25, 2025, Beijing - From daily use of shampoo and skincare products to spacecraft thermal control systems and deep-sea exploration equipment, silicone oil is becoming a key player in cross disciplinary innovation due to its unique chemical stability, lubricity, and biocompatibility. According to the statistics of the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2025, silicone oil will achieve breakthroughs in application in 12 emerging fields, and the market size will increase by 2.3 times compared with five years ago.


Consumer field: equal emphasis on safety and functionality
In the personal care industry, silicone oil has become a mainstream additive due to its "safe and non irritating" properties. By 2025, the global market size of silicone oil for cosmetics will reach 4.7 billion US dollars, with "amino acid modified silicone oil" accounting for over 60% of the high-end care market due to its combination of softness and moisturizing effects. Domestic brands such as L'Oreal and Huaxi Biotechnology have combined silicone oil with active ingredients through microcapsule technology to launch "sustained-release skincare" products, which have received enthusiastic market feedback.


Extreme Environmental Solution: Going to the Sea from Above
The application of silicone oil continues to expand in extreme environments. In the aerospace field, China's "Tiangong" space station adopts a silicone oil based thermal control coating, which can withstand temperature differences of -180 ℃ to 200 ℃, ensuring stable operation of the equipment; In deep-sea exploration, a sealant made of silicone oil and fluorocarbon materials was successfully applied to the manned submersible "Striver", withstanding a pressure of 110MPa and breaking the record for deep diving. In addition, silicone oil-based grease has become a standard configuration for polar scientific research equipment, solving the problem of low-temperature solidification.


New energy track: Empowering photovoltaics and energy storage
With the acceleration of global energy transition, the application scenarios of silicone oil in the field of new energy are constantly enriching. In the photovoltaic industry, silicone oil as a coating for backsheet materials can improve the weather resistance of components by 30% and extend their service life to over 25 years; In the field of energy storage, silicone oil based electrolytes have become a hot topic in the research and development of solid-state batteries due to their high voltage stability. By 2025, companies such as CATL and BYD will have applied silicone oil electrolyte to mass-produced car models, increasing their range by 8% -12%.


Biomedical: From Auxiliary Materials to Core Carriers
The innovation of silicone oil in the field of biomedicine is remarkable. The "magnetic silicone oil microspheres" developed by a team in Shanghai can carry drugs to accurately target tumor tissues, and clinical trials have shown a 40% improvement in efficacy; In addition, silicone oil-based 3D printing materials have been used for customized artificial joints, with better biocompatibility and wear resistance than traditional metal materials. It is predicted that by 2030, the market size of silicone oil in the medical field will exceed 2 billion US dollars.


Industry outlook: 2026 may welcome the era of "Silicone Oil 4.0"
Experts point out that with the deep integration of nanotechnology, biotechnology, and silicone oil industry, the industry will enter a new stage of "intelligence and functionalization" in 2026. For example, endowing silicone oil with self-healing and photoresponsive properties through molecular design, or developing programmable silicone oil materials for flexible electronics, smart wearables, and other fields. The Secretary General of the China Organic Silicon Industry Association stated, "Silicone oil has been upgraded from 'industrial monosodium glutamate' to 'strategic material', and its application depth and breadth will exceed imagination in the next five years