Evonik Degussa likes a chemical reaction, or a least a good reaction to its chemical products. The German giant operates as the chemical unit of Evonik Industries and groups those operations in a half dozen units. The largest division makes industrial chemicals like chlorides, peroxides, and propylene derivatives. Evonik Degussa's inorganic materials unit makes silicon products for solar energy applications and carbon black. Evonik Degussa is the world's largest maker of specialty chemicals, and serves the automotive, pharmaceutical, and coatings industries. German coal firm RAG had owned what was then just plain Degussa until the 2007 spinoff of most of its businesses into a new entity, Evonik Industries.