SAS has been safely used in a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications for many decades.

In consumer applications, SAS is used in cosmetics (e.g., as abrasion additive in toothpastes, thickener in pastes, formulation aid in creams), pharmaceuticals (e.g., as free-flow additive, carrier, or retardant agent) and food (as E 551 e.g. to introduce free-flow properties into powder or seasonings).

In industrial applications, SAS is used as a reinforcement agent (e.g., in rubber (“Green Tyre”) and silicones), as matting agent or rheological additive (e.g. in paints, lacquers, and varnishes), to prevent plastic films from sticking, and in thermal insulations. Colloidal silica is widely used in coatings, ink receptive papers, metal casting, refractory products, catalysts, and as a filter aid in food production, where it is removed completely at the end of the process. Silica gel is in addition used as a desiccant or in chromatography.