Deepening Fine Organosilicon Synthesis, Breaking Industrial Involution Through Structural Innovation
Interview | Li Jie, R&D Director of SISO: Deepening Fine Organosilicon Synthesis, Breaking Industrial Involution Through Structural Innovation
Release Date:2025.11.04
Source:Official Organosilicon Industry Media
Recently, the2025 Functional Silane Technology and Application Exchange Conference was successfully concluded in Shenzhen. Focusing on technological innovation, process iteration and downstream application upgrading of silane materials, the conference gathered scientific researchers, technical engineers and enterprise R&D directors from the national organosilicon industrial chain to explore new development paths for the industry. During the event, Li Jie, R&D Director of Suzhou Siso New Material, was invited to attend the High-performance Composite Materials and Silane Interface Technology Forum and delivered a special speech titled Technical Innovation in the Synthesis of Novel Silane Coupling Agents. After the conference, Li Jie accepted an exclusive interview with the official organosilicon industry media, deeply analyzing silane synthesis processes, industrial technical pain points and future development trends.
18 Years of In-depth Research on Core Grignard Synthesis Technology
As a senior technical expert with 18 years of in-depth industry experience, Li Jie has long focused on the research of Grignard reagent preparation, Grignard catalytic reaction, and refined synthesis of special silanes and functional organosilicon monomers. He has rich practical experience in laboratory-scale R&D, process optimization and industrial mass production, and is a core technical researcher in the field of customized synthesis of niche fine organosilicon structures in China.
In the interview, Li Jie focused on analyzing the process optimization logic of Grignard reaction. As the core process for silane coupling agent synthesis, the solvent system, temperature control, feeding ratio and reaction device of Grignard reaction directly determine product conversion rate, by-product control and final purity stability.
Taking phenylalkoxysilane synthesis as an example, the team adopted a mixed solvent system to replace single solvent and accurately controlled the reaction temperature range, effectively solving the industrial pain points of difficult initiation, low conversion rate and high biphenyl by-products in traditional chlorobenzene systems. Through the scientific proportioning of toluene, benzene and tetrahydrofuran and precise temperature control at about 90℃, the conversion rate of phenylmagnesium chloride is greatly improved, realizing minimized by-products and maximized product purity.
Meanwhile, through two-step process optimization, the team realized the efficient synthesis of T-type, D-type and M-type phenyl silane coupling agents, featuring fewer by-products, easy filtration of salt residues, low rectification loss, high product yield and excellent batch stability. For the bromobenzene synthesis system, the team innovatively integrated two reactions into one, which greatly simplifies the process flow, reduces comprehensive energy consumption and production costs, and provides solid technical support for efficient industrial mass production.
Breaking Industrial Homogeneous Competition & Redefining Silane Innovation Logic
In view of the current situation of homogeneous capacity expansion, overcapacity of low-end products and fierce market involution in the organosilicon industry, Li Jie put forward a differentiated development view:The future development of the silane industry lies in structural and application innovation rather than blind capacity expansion.
He stated that conventional silane coupling agents have simple structures and low technical barriers, which are easy to be homogenized and imitated, leading to saturated industrial capacity and fierce price competition. Blindly expanding the production capacity of general products will only intensify industrial involution and fail to form long-term core competitiveness.
Based on this, Suzhou Siso has stepped out of the traditional capacity competition track and opened up a brand-new technical route ofstock iteration and structural upgrading. Based on mature general coupling agents, we carry out secondary modification and grafting reactions with functional groups such as epoxy, acrylate, amine and isocyanate to develop modified silane products with brand-new structures.
This innovative model can not only absorb the excess industrial capacity, but also realize product performance upgrading and fill the gaps in high-end segmented markets. It replaces traditional coupling agents with single performance and truly drives product value enhancement through technological innovation.
In the fields of high-end electronics and precision new materials, domestic high-purity silane materials have long relied on imports. In particular, electronic-grade tetraethyl orthosilicate requires ppb-level control of metal impurities, ion residues and purity stability. Conventional domestic products cannot meet high-end application requirements, which has long restricted the localization of the industry.
Li Jie confessed in the interview that the core barriers of high-end fine organosilicon materials lie in accurate molecular structure design, extreme impurity control and high batch consistency. Simply improving the purity of conventional coupling agents can only meet partial basic application needs and cannot break through the bottlenecks of high-end fields such as high-end electronics, precision coatings and new energy bonding.
Therefore, Suzhou Siso has established a new R&D strategy:reducing the layout of generalized large-scale silane products and focusing on niche, special, high-precision and customized organosilicon structures. Relying on the R&D accumulation of more than 500 special organosilicon products, we focus on segmented categories such as asymmetric structured silicone oil, single-terminal active organosilicon intermediates, customized functional silanes and high-end modified additives, which precisely match high-end scenarios including high-end coatings, polymer modification, new energy materials and scientific research precision synthesis.
Breaking Barriers Between Synthesis & Application to Build a Full-process Technical Closed Loop
Talking about the core technical pain points of the industry, Li Jie pointed out that the biggest shortcoming of the current organosilicon industry is the disconnection between synthesis and application terminals. R&D personnel focus on molecular structure design but are unfamiliar with downstream formula systems, while application engineers are proficient in product use but cannot understand the in-depth influence of functional structures on formula performance, resulting in the failure of industrialization of many new materials.
In response to this industrial pain point, Suzhou Siso is fully building a full-chain system of "molecular synthesis - formula adaptation - scenario implementation". Li Jie said that there is no shortcut in new material R&D. Through continuous iteration of new molecular structures, a large number of application formula tests and repeated working condition debugging, the team continuously verifies structural performance and optimizes product adaptability, gradually realizing precise matching of customized structures with downstream application scenarios, and solving customers’ core problems of poor material adaptability, unstable modification effect and high cost of import substitution.
Enterprise Technical Layout: Focusing on Fine Customization & Adhering to Differentiated Innovation
This interview fully demonstrates Suzhou Siso’s technical positioning and development philosophy: refusing to participate in low-end capacity involution, focusing on the high-end fine organosilicon customization track; refusing to pursue large-scale mass production, concentrating on breakthroughs in niche, precise, non-standard and core bottleneck new materials.
Relying on the senior R&D team, mature Grignard synthesis technology, refined quality control system and full-process application service capabilities, Suzhou Siso realizes customizable molecular structure, precise viscosity regulation, controllable functionality, extreme impurity control and stable batch delivery. We continuously provide highly adaptable, high-stability and import-substitutable special organosilicon solutions for university research institutions, high-end new material enterprises and listed chemical companies, boosting the localization innovation and upgrading of high-end organosilicon materials.
