General wet electronic chemicals usually refer to basic high-purity chemical types with relatively simple compositions and high standardization that are used in large quantities during manufacturing, mainly including high-purity acids, bases, organic solvents, and oxidants, primarily used for routine cleaning, etching, and other basic wet processes.
Table 1: Classification of general wet electronic chemical products. Source: public information, compiled by Shenqitou Industry Research Institute.
Domestic production of general wet electronic chemicals is advancing rapidly. In recent years, domestic companies have made significant breakthroughs in electronic-grade (semiconductor G5-level) hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, ammonia water and other varieties, basically achieving large-scale supply for 12-inch wafer manufacturing at 28nm and above, and steadily advancing in applications at technology nodes below 28nm. In 2024, the industry's overall domestic production process accelerated, with core varieties such as electronic-grade hydrogen peroxide, sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and phosphoric acid performing particularly prominently. According to CEMIA statistics, the combined domestic market share of the above products has reached 55%, and general wet electronic chemicals for integrated circuits—the inorganic varieties used in larger quantities—can basically meet the needs of major domestic application manufacturers. However, current supply is still mainly concentrated in the local market, and global market share needs to be improved.
I. Electronic-grade sulfuric acid.
Electronic-grade sulfuric acid, also called high-purity sulfuric acid or ultra-pure sulfuric acid, is one of the acidic wet electronic chemicals used in the largest quantities in semiconductor manufacturing, widely used in cleaning, etching, photoresist removal and other key process steps. Among all application areas, integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing has the largest demand for electronic-grade sulfuric acid, especially in front-end cleaning processes for 8-inch and 12-inch wafers, requiring high-purity products meeting SEMI G4 to G5 standards. Besides semiconductors, electronic-grade sulfuric acid is also used in new displays and solar photovoltaics: in new displays, mainly for substrate cleaning in TFT array processes and organic residue removal in OLED device manufacturing; in solar photovoltaics, mainly for silicon wafer cleaning and texturing in N-type high-efficiency cells (such as TOPCon, HJT). The price of electronic-grade sulfuric acid is dozens of times that of industrial-grade sulfuric acid.
According to a 2022 report by electronic materials market research firm TECHCET, global demand for electronic-grade sulfuric acid for integrated circuits is expected to increase to 1.075 million tons by 2025. According to the prospectus of Xingfu Electronics and data from the China Electronic Materials Industry Association, taking into account the demand for wet electronic chemicals from foreign manufacturers with plants in China such as Samsung Xi'an, SK Hynix China, and Intel Dalian, the total market demand for wet electronic chemicals for IC front-end wafer manufacturing in China in 2023 was 907,500 tons, of which electronic-grade sulfuric acid demand was 250,700 tons, accounting for 27.6%. According to Guohai Securities data, in 2022 China's semiconductor industry demand for electronic-grade sulfuric acid was 227,600 tons, and the display panel industry demand was 6,900 tons; by 2025 they are expected to grow to 433,600 tons and 14,200 tons, respectively.
Figure 1: Demand for electronic-grade sulfuric acid in China's semiconductor and photovoltaic industries, 2020-2025 (10,000 tons).
Polyimide's poor corona resistance seriously shortens its service life under complex operating conditions, and nano-modification technology offers a new direction for developing corona-resistant polyimide films.
Zhang Yiyi, Zhao Ziwei, Liu Jiefeng, and Zha Junwei — from the Guangxi Power Transmission and Distribution Network Lightning Protection Engineering Technology Research Center at Guangxi University, the School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, and the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering at USTB — published an article in the 2023, Issue 5 edition of Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society. Starting from the mechanism of corona resistance, they first reviewed the aging process of polyimide under corona; then analyzed strategies for improving the corona resistance of composite polyimide based on performance parameters such as dielectric properties, conductivity, trap characteristics, interface effects, and thermal conductivity; and finally summarized the existing problems in current research on corona-resistant polyimide films and offered an outlook on future directions, aiming to achieve the development of polyimide films with excellent corona resistance.
With the development of power electronics technology, power electronic transformers that combine power electronics with high-frequency transformers have become key electrical equipment in smart grids, high-speed rail, aerospace, and many other fields. As the core device in power electronic transformers, high-frequency transformers can efficiently achieve voltage level conversion, electrical isolation, power regulation, and bidirectional energy flow.
However, because high-frequency transformers operate under complex conditions — especially since the voltage applied to the coil windings has large amplitude, high frequency, and short rise time — and because the internal winding structure is compact, heat is hard to dissipate and temperature builds up. Under this multi-physics coupling, the inter-turn insulation, as the weak point of insulation, easily triggers corona discharge, which accelerates insulation aging and causes corona breakdown in a short time, seriously endangering the safety of electrical equipment. Therefore, developing insulating materials with excellent corona resistance has become a top priority.
Polyimide (PI) is a class of polymer materials with imide ring structures. The very stable aromatic heterocyclic structure in the main chain gives it excellent thermal stability, mechanical properties, and insulating properties, so it is widely used as insulating material in high-frequency transformers, variable-frequency motors, wind power equipment, and more.
However, polyimide has poor corona resistance under high-frequency voltage, which seriously shortens the service life of electrical equipment. To improve the corona resistance of polyimide films, scholars at home and abroad have carried out extensive research on polyimide composite films using nano-modification technology in recent years, and it has been confirmed that adding an appropriate amount of nanoparticles can effectively improve the corona resistance of polyimide.
One of the most representative corona-resistant polyimide films, already in large-scale production, is 100CR developed by DuPont. Its unique "sandwich" structure (top and bottom layers of Al2O3-doped composite PI film with a pure PI film in the middle) gives it a much longer corona resistance life under high-frequency voltage, up to more than 10 times that of pure polyimide film (100HN).
Although many scholars have confirmed that doping with inorganic nanoparticles can improve the corona resistance of dielectrics, explanations of the corona resistance mechanism of nanocomposite dielectrics are not yet unified.
Despite rapid cost reductions, sodium batteries haven't fully caught up with LFP on cost: in July 2026, sodium cells sold for about 0.64 yuan/Wh, still above LFP's sub-0.4 yuan/Wh. Hard carbon anodes are one cost bottleneck — prices had fallen to 35,000-40,000 yuan/ton by 2026, but precursor resources (coconut shell, biomass) are limited in scale, and the process stability of coal-based/resin-based routes remains to be verified. There are also supply chain constraints on transition metals in the cathode and sodium hexafluorophosphate in the electrolyte, so sodium batteries are not a "zero resource risk" option.
6.4 Gas generation, safety, and standards
Sodium battery industrialization also faces gas generation issues (electrolyte decomposition producing gas that swells cells) and yield challenges in scaled manufacturing. On safety, sodium dendrites being softer and less likely to pierce the separator is a relative advantage, but gas control and thermal management still need engineering optimization. An industry standards system is being built (new national certification for sodium batteries, two-wheeler battery standards), and companies like Yadea have taken part in leading standard-setting.
6.5 External risk from lithium price swings
The biggest external variable for sodium batteries is the price of lithium carbonate. Industry estimates suggest sodium batteries have a clear market window when lithium carbonate exceeds 120,000 yuan/ton; if lithium prices stay low for a long time (say, falling below 50,000 yuan/ton), lithium battery costs would be sharply compressed, narrowing sodium's economic window. In 2026, lithium carbonate prices rose more than 100% from 2025 lows, giving sodium batteries a rare window — but lithium prices move in both directions, and this is a systemic risk the sodium industry must face squarely.
7 Future breakthrough directions and outlook
7.1 Cost reduction roadmap: from approaching parity to full parity
The cost reduction path for sodium batteries is clear: materials at scale (as of 2026, Ronbay Technology's sodium cathode costs had already matched LFP cathode costs under a 150,000 yuan/ton lithium carbonate scenario), improved process yields, dual aluminum foil, and economies of scale all driving it. CITIC Securities expects leading manufacturers' layered-oxide sodium cells to reach cost parity with LFP by the end of 2026, with cell costs potentially falling to 0.25 yuan/Wh by 2030. If sodium costs smoothly drop to the 0.2-0.3 yuan/Wh range, sodium batteries would remain highly economical even if lithium prices fall to low levels, and at that point they would fully replace the mid-to-low-end LFP market.
Figure 4 | Convergence trend of sodium-ion and LFP cell costs (yuan/Wh)
Source: Guanyan Tianxia, CITIC Securities, and public institution forecasts | Unit: yuan/Wh | 2026E onward are forecasts; 2023-2026Q1 are actual/estimated midpoints
The two cost curves are expected to cross in 2026-2027, with sodium going from "more expensive" to "equivalent" and then widening the gap further through scale advantages. Notably, under the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) metric, sodium's advantage shows up earlier: LFP works out to about 0.8 yuan/Wh ÷ 8,000 cycles ≈ 0.10 yuan/kWh, while sodium is about 0.6 yuan/Wh ÷ 10,000 cycles ≈ 0.06 yuan/kWh — long cycle life gives sodium an implicit premium in storage scenarios.
7.2 Industrializing frontier tech: anode-free and solid-state
Anode-free plus semi-solid/solid-state is the main direction for sodium batteries to break through the energy density bottleneck.
Yingong Technology (310Wh/kg, production starting August 2026), Zhaona New Energy (348.5Wh/kg), Xibei Power (230Wh/kg, mass production in 2026), and Pylon Technologies have formed an industrialization lineup; CATL's self-generated anode technology is the benchmark among leaders.
