WACKER ranks among the ten most research-intensive chemical companies in the world, with annual R&D expenditures of about five percent of sales. These investments secure WACKER’s continued success in terms of technological focus and profitability.
Our commitment to research goes back over a century. In 1903, Alexander Wacker founded the Consortium für elektrochemische Industrie – an innovative forum for scientists driven by curiosity, creativity and inventiveness. As WACKER's corporate research facility, it has built up an impressive record of some 800 patents over the decades. Right from the start, the Consortium has always developed materials and processes that are of direct benefit to both the individual and the economy.
The resultant scientific milestones have laid the groundwork for numerous, solution-oriented applications in a wide variety of sectors. The Consortium complements basic research by its ability to identify economic, ecological and sociological trends and to respond profitably through industrial innovations. The Consortium’s strategic focus is underpinned by the global strength of Wacker Chemie AG and its corporate sectors: Siltronic AG, WACKER SILICONES, WACKER POLYMERS, WACKER FINE CHEMICALS and WACKER POLYSILICON.
Progress in acetylene chemistry early last century was just one of the many milestones. In the sixties, the Consortium achieved a petrochemical breakthrough based on the “WACKER process” (direct oxidation of ethylene to acetaldehyde). The traditional activities of catalysis, polymers and organic synthesis were followed in the early eighties by the rise of biotech, which has been conquering new markets ever since.
Our research labs in Munich are the birthplace of tomorrow’s product developments and customized solutions. Solvents, cleaners, degreasers, vinyl polymers, plasticizers, surface coatings and high-performance fibers are just some of the areas in which groundbreaking research occurs. Others range from plant protection, liquid-crystal pigments and polymers, and the synthesis of nature-identical fragrances and flavorings, through chiral building blocks for pharmaceuticals, to cyclodextrins and enzymes, unnatural amino acids, and pharmaceutical proteins for use in immunology, oncology and cardiology.