Evonik Industries AG has acquired Silbond Corp., Weston, MI, a leading supplier of silicic acid esters. The transaction, with a purchase price in the mid-double-digit million euro range, closed on Feb. 28, 2014. As a special group of functional silanes, silicic acid esters are used in a wide variety of applications with a promising future—for example in the electronics industry or in chemical applications such as coatings. The most important silicic acid ester is tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), which...