Since 2022, Russia-Ukraine geopolitical conflicts have intensified, and global energy prices have risen sharply, with international natural gas prices hitting historic highs. As the most important transitional energy source in the transition from fossil energy to non-fossil energy, the share of natural gas in primary energy has increased from 14.6% in 1965 to 24.7% in 2020.  The global gas price indices showed a unilateral downward trend from 2018, bottomed out in 2020, and remained low for a long time. However, since July 2020, the global gas prices have gradually fluctuated upward, and the impact of geopolitical events made the Dutch TTF gas price even hit record highs repeatedly.

An analyst of a securities company believes that the core catalyst of this round of global gas market lies in the lack of investment in upstream oil and gas resources caused by long-term low prices. Since 2020, although the epidemic has led to a decline in demand, the decline in supply has been faster, resulting in a large inventory consumption. In 2021, demand will recover faster than supply (the supply-side is less sensitive to prices, which will be reflected in investment).  

As the world's two largest gas concrete foaming agents are also expected to change significantly.

Introduction to Foaming Agents

The foaming agent is a kind of material that makes the object matter into pores. It can be divided into chemical foaming agents, physical foaming agents, and surface-active agents.  The chemical foaming agent is a compound which can release gas such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen and form fine pores in polymer composition after decomposition by heating.  The physical foaming agent is the change of the physical form of a certain kind of material through the fine pores of foam, namely through the expansion of compressed gas, liquid volatilization, or solid dissolution and the formation of the compound.

In the last article, we talked about the chemical foaming agents of OBSH and DPT. In this article, ADC foaming agents will be talked about.

 

3.    ADC Foaming Agents

With the development of the plastic industry, a single ADC foaming agent can no longer meet the demand, so the modified ADC foaming agent came into being. Abundant modification methods bring diversity, specialization, and serialization of ADC. Modification research has become the key to the development of ADC in recent years. Moreover, the ADC modification process basically has no waste, needs less investment, and has considerable economic and social benefits. 

The modification of ADC products is to optimize the gas generation, particle size, color, and thermal decomposition temperature of the foaming agent, mainly through changing certain reaction conditions or adding certain additives in the preparation process. ADC particle micro refinements; Add additives in ADC powder; Different types of foaming agents were mixed to achieve the modification effect.

 

Currently, the main types of modified products are: 

1. Particle micro refinements type; 

2. Low-temperature type. The decomposition temperature of ordinary ADC is generally higher than 200℃. Many resins with low softening points and easy aging under heat hope to have low-temperature decomposition products. At present, the development of low-temperature ADC is one of the main research topics in its modification field. It mainly selects one or more activators and combines them with ADC in a certain proportion. The activators can choose metal compounds such as chromium, zinc, lead, urea derivatives and nitroguanidine, etc. After modification, the lowest decomposition temperature of the ADC foaming agent can reach 80℃. 

3. Highly dispersed type. In order to obtain a uniform polymer with a smooth surface without holes, it is necessary to completely disperse the foaming agent proportionally in the polymer. Generally, ADC foaming agents are susceptible to static electricity and other factors, which agglomerate and affect product quality. It is very important to develop highly dispersed products. ADC foaming agents can be mixed with fine powder of some inert inorganic compounds, and highly dispersed products can be prepared by adding surfactants to ADC products. 

4. Inhibit foaming. Dicarboxylic acids and their hydrazides, phenols, amines, and triazoles can inhibit the decomposition of ADC, and the inhibition effect is better when a metal ion activator is available. For example, the addition of inhibiting foaming foaming agent materials will cause uneven patterns due to the difference in foaming effect, from which the production of foaming wallpaper and other interior decoration materials; 

5. Compound. Other additives with specific functions can be mixed with ADC, or several foaming agents can be mixed with each other, according to the principle of synergy between various additives, compound into one. Compound additives have become the mainstream of the development of the plastic additives industry. 

6. Foaming agent masterbatch. Like other synthetic material additives, master leasing has become one of the modification trends of foaming agent ADC. Mixing ADC, foaming agent, and polymer to get masterbatch, effectively solving the problems of dispersion and dust pollution.

 

Suppliers of Concrete Additives

TRUNNANO is a reliable foaming agents supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.

If you are looking for high-quality CLC foaming agents, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com)

We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. TRUNNANO will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.

The development of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will continue to dominate the commodity prices such as the concrete foaming agents in the future. If the conflict eases or cools, Russia and Ukraine go back to negotiate, commodity prices would fall. However, if the situation between Russia and Ukraine deteriorates further, or evolves into a full-scale war, the price of the concrete foaming agents is predicted to see further improvement over the coming days.

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