Silica for Powder Defoamers

Foam can be disruptive in manufacturing or applying products. That’s why defoamers are added to prevent the formation of air bubbles and destabilize existing foam. Processing powdered ingredients or materials requires powdered defoamer formulations as powders are easier to blend with other powders than with liquid components. Powder defoamers are needed, for example, for processing powder detergents, or for mixing building materials such as concrete, screed, grout, putty, or tile cement, on construction sites.

It is a challenge to transform defoamer oils into dry formulations. An easy solution is adding highly absorptive SIPERNAT® or ZEOFREE® carrier silica. Their sponge-like porous structure sucks up any kind of liquid due to high capillary forces. Liquids are turned into powders. This allows them to be added very easily and homogeneously to dry, powdered preparations. As the absorbed liquids are typically only weakly bound to silica. They leave the carrier and unfold their defoaming effect when the material mixed with the powder defoamer is processed.