There is a lot of hocus-pocus and snake oil behavior in this space
We here at Simple Siramic will avoid the snake oil type marketing behavior that has plagued this space for years. This page is intended to remove some of the mystery from the various components that have been hyped in this space for decades. We will continue to refine this page (it is a living document) as questions are asked to help folks better understand "marketing" from real performance. More materials will be added, so check back often. Send questions in at the bottom of the page through contact form as you have them. We will do our best to integrate the updates to improve this page. Let's go to school together!
Graphene
Graphene or graphene oxide is a solid material obtained by exfoliating graphite particles into thin sheets. It is primarily hexagonal carbon atoms arranged in a single layer, is a "solid" material dark gray in appearance and will have a tendency to settle in packaged product. It possesses very interesting properties and continues to find high end applications where it does deliver REAL improvements to material function. It is VERY expensive to produce in industrial quantities making widespread use in significant quantities challenging. Within the automotive after market care space this is also true (the expensive part). It often exists at extremely low levels (think parts per million or lower or < 0.001%) similar to those of dyes, fragrance and preservatives. While some will claim even at those low levels it can impact performance, some scientists have intentionally removed graphene from products marketed as containing graphene, and tested them side-by-side with and without and determined no functional difference. Back to the tendency to settle in liquids, is your graphene product packaged in a clear bottle? Why is that? We plainly sit on the "skeptical" side of the discussion and WILL NOT propagate what we see as hocus-pocus in the space. So no graphene for us!
In the truest chemical sense, SiO2 is Silica. In the repeating structure of a silica molecule, the Silicon atom (gray circles) shares 1/2 of 4 oxygen atoms (red circles) with adjacent silicon atoms. Silica is used in a large variety of industrial applications and is relatively inexpensive to obtain for a formulation. Most auto care aftermarket products would utilize a dispersion of silica in water for a simple "stir and go" method of use. Solvent based coatings (think high-end "ceramics") can also include silica particles. The particles can be modified to be very hydrophobic, hence their frequent use in products for protecting the surfaces of automobiles. Like graphene, silica is a solid particle, that is generally white in appearance. The dispersions are typically formulated and manufactured in a way to avoid settling. Once used in a product with other ingredients the stability can be compromised (not always, but it can happen). A useful ingredient, ABSOLUTELY. The mis-use of SiO2 comes in when marketing calls EVERYTHING SiO2, including silicone polymers (gross misrepresentation, see silicone polymer section below).
SiO2
seems to be used to cover a lot of things
Silicone Polymers
Silicone polymers have been the backbone of performance for decades. These polymers are available as common, basic polydimethylsiloxane or are functionalized with various organic groups on the silicone polymer chain to provide different performance characteristics. The distinction in the structure (shown at left) is "why" this IS NOT SiO2. The light orange dot is the Silicon atom, the red one is Oxygen, the gray once is Carbon and lastly the little white ones are hydrogen atoms. In this structure, again, the oxygen atom is shared between two adjacent Silicon atoms, so in a typical fluid silicone polymer it s SiO (and not SiO2). The little "n" outside the brackets denotes this structure inside the brackets repeats "n" times to represent the dimethylsilicone structure. The functionalized polymer types replace one of the methyl groups (single gray dot and 3 white dots) with other organic groups. Intentionally not going to share a lot of detail here because this is how the magic happens when it comes to product performance.
So the term ceramic is also frequently mis-used in auto care after market products. Expensive ceramic products are normally formulated with polysilazane polymers in solvent and supplied in small glass bottles. These materials differ from silicone polymers (above) in that the atom between the Silicon atoms is a Nitrogen. When applied the materials react with water in the air, give off ammonia (as a by-product) and result in polymers with siloxane (Si-O-Si) bonds. They are designed to result in highly cross-linked films, which is why many existing ceramic products have hardness ratings assigned to them. This is also why they are so durable. The less durable and less expensive ceramic products frequently have some amount of reactive silicone polymers in them making them a little less expensive, but also less cross-linked and less durable. Opinions vary on the value, particularly when installation is required to be done by a professional, but when properly formulated and applied the performance is without question, superior.