POLYSTYRENE

Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic aromatic hydrocarbon polymer made from the monomer styrene.

Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and rather brittle. It is
an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a rather poor barrier to oxygen and water vapour and has a
relatively low melting point.

Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics, the scale of its production being several million
tonnes per year. Polystyrene can be naturally transparent, but can be coloured with colourants. Uses
include protective packaging (such as packing peanuts and CD and DVD cases), containers, lids, bottles,
trays, tumblers, disposable cutlery and in the making of models.

HISTORY

• Polystyrene was discovered in 1839 by Eduard Simon, an apothecary in Berlin. From storax resign of
gum tree Liquidambar orientalis he a distilled an oily substance monomer that was named “styrol”.

Sweet gum wood is valued for its attractive, interlocked grain. It easily takes on staining, painting and is
moderately easy to shape and bore. Sweet gum wood is commercially used for electronic cabinetry,
furniture, doors, millwork and paneling.

• styrol had thickened, from oxidation into a jelly he described that styrol oxide polymerization process.

Styrol" (now: "styrene"). He also noticed that when Styrol was exposed to air, light, or heat, it gradually
transformed into a hard, rubber-like substance,

• In 1845 a chemist John Blyth and August Wilhelm von Hofmann showed that the same transformation
of styrol took place in the absence of oxygen. they called their substance metastyrol.

• In 1866 Marcelin Berthelot correctly identified the formation of metastyrol /Styroloxyd from styrol as
a polymerization process 3

In 1954, the Koppers Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, developed expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam
under the trade name Dylite.  In 1960, Dart Container, the largest manufacturer of foam cups, shipped
their first order.  In 1988, the first U.S. ban of general polystyrene foam was enacted in Berkeley,
California
AREAS OF EXPLOITATION OF POLYSTYRENE

1 BUILDING INDUSTRY

2 INSULANT CONTAINER

3 FINISHING PRODUCTS

4 GAMES,MODELLING,DECORATION TECHNICAL PRODUCTS

5 TRAFFIC AND STORE RESOURCES

6 PACKING MATERIALS

7 PACKAGING RESOURCES

DISADVANTAGES

Disadvantages of Polystyrene include:

 Brittle, poor chemical resistance especially to organics.

 Susceptible to UV degradation

 It is soluble in solvents that contain acetone, such as most aerosol paint sprays and
cyanoacrylate glues.

 It is highly flammable and burns with an orange yellow flame, giving off carbon particles or soot,
as a characteristic of all aromatic hydrocarbons. Polystyrene, on complete oxidation, produces
only carbon dioxide and water vapour.

Advantages of Polystyrene include:

 Cheap, rigid, transparent, easy to mould and good dimensional stability.

 Good electrical properties, low dielectric loss.

 Excellent resistance to gamma radiation.

 polystyrene foam provides excellent thermal insulation in numerous applications, such as

building walls and roofing, refrigerators and freezers, and industrial cold storage facilities.
Polystyrene insulation is inert, durable and resistant to water damage.