Styrofoam redirects here. For the music band of the same name see Styrofoam (artist).

Polystyrene is a polymer made from the monomer styrene, a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum. At room temperature, polystyrene is normally a solid thermoplastic, but can be melted at higher temperature for molding or extrusion, then resolidified. Styrene is an aromatic monomer, and polystyrene is an aromatic polymer. Density (symbol: ρ - Greek: rho) is a measure of mass per unit of volume. ... Kilogram per cubic metre is the SI measure of density and is represented as kg/m³, where kg stands for kilogram and m³ stands for cubic metre. ... Electrical conductivity is a measure of how well a material accommodates the transport of electric charge. ... The siemens (symbol: S) is the SI derived unit of electric conductance. ... The metre (Commonwealth English) or meter (American English) (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... In physics, thermal conductivity, λ or k, is the intensive property of a material which relates its ability to conduct heat. ... In physics, thermal conductivity, λ, is the quantity of heat transmitted, due to unit temperature gradient, in unit time under steady conditions in a direction normal to a surface of unit area, when the heat transfer is dependent only on the temperature gradient thermal conductivity = heat flow rate / (distance × temperature... The modulus of elasticity can also be measured in other units of pressure, for example pounds per square inch (psi). ... Mega (symbol M) is a SI prefix in the SI system of units denoting a factor of 106, i. ... The pascal (symbol Pa) is the SI unit of pressure. ... The tensile strength of a material is the maximum amount of tensile stress that it can be subjected to before it fails. Modes of failure typically vary with the type of material being stressed. ... Mega (symbol M) is a SI prefix in the SI system of units denoting a factor of 106, i. ... The pascal (symbol Pa) is the SI unit of pressure. ... The joule (symbol J, also called newton metre, or coulomb volt) is the SI unit of energy and work. ... A square metre (US spelling: square meter) is by definition the area enclosed by a square with sides each 1 metre long. ... A material’s glass transition temperature, Tg, is the temperature below which molecules have little relative mobility. ... The degree Celsius (symbol: °C) is an SI derived unit of temperature. ... The melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. ... The degree Celsius (symbol: °C) is an SI derived unit of temperature. ... The metre (Commonwealth English) or meter (American English) (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ... The kelvin (symbol: K) is the SI unit of temperature, and is one of the seven SI base units. ... The coefficient of thermal expansion is used in two ways: as a volumetric thermal expansion coefficient as a linear thermal expansion coefficient These characteristics are closely related. ... The kelvin (symbol: K) is the SI unit of temperature, and is one of the seven SI base units. ... The specific heat capacity (symbol c or s, also called specific heat or SHC) of a substance is defined as heat capacity per unit mass. ... Styrofoam (Arne Van Petegem) is a Belgian one man glitch electronica project that can be classified as indietronic. ... Polymer is a generic term used to describe a very long molecule consisting of structural units and repeating units connected by covalent chemical bonds. ... In chemistry, a monomer (from Greek mono one and meros part) is a small molecule that may become chemically bonded to other monomers to form a polymer. ... Styrene (also vinyl benzene, ethenylbenzene, phenethylene, cinnamene, diarex HF 77, styrolene, styrol, styropol) is an organic compound which is an aromatic hydrocarbon having the chemical formula C8H8. ... A liquid will assume the shape of its container. ... Hydrocarbons are refined at oil refineries and chemical plants In chemistry, a hydrocarbon is any chemical compound that consists only of the elements carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). ... Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale, or intermediate processes involving the production or finishing of semi-manufactures. ... Nodding donkey pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Petroleum (from Greek petra – rock and oleum – oil), crude oil, sometimes colloquially called black gold, is a thick, dark brown or greenish liquid. ... A thermoplastic is a material that becomes plastic when heated and freezes when cooled. ... Molding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a mold. ... In chemistry, an aromatic molecule is one in which a conjugated ring of unsaturated bonds, lone pairs, or empty orbitals exhibit a stabilization stronger than would be expected by the stabilization of conjugation alone. ...

Polystyrene was accidentally discovered in 1839 by Eduard Simon, an apothecary in Berlin, Germany. From storax, the resin of Liquidambar orientalis, he distilled an oily substance, a monomer which he named styrol. Several days later Simon found that the styrol had thickened, presumably due to oxidation, into a jelly he dubbed styrol oxide ("Stryroloxyd"). By 1845 English chemist John Blyth and German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann showed that the same transformation of styrol took place in the absence of oxygen. They called their substance metastyrol. Analysis later showed that it was chemically identical to Styroloxyd. In 1866 Marcelin Berthelot correctly identified the formation of metastyrol from styrol as a polymerization process. About 80 years went by before it was realized that heating of styrol starts a chain reaction which produces macromolecules, following the thesis of German organic chemist Hermann Staudinger (1881 - 1965). This eventually led to the substance receiving its present name, polystyrene. The I.G. Farben company began manufacturing polystyrene in Ludwigshafen, Germany, about 1931, hoping it would be a suitable replacement for die cast zinc in many applications. Success was achieved when they developed a reactor vessel that extruded polystyrene through a heated tube and cutter, producing polystyrene in pellet form. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Storax is the resinous exudate of the Sweetgum, occasionally used in incense or as an aromatic fixative in perfumery. ... Species Liquidambar formosana Liquidambar orientalis Liquidambar styraciflua The sweetgums Liquidambar are a genus in the witch-hazel family Hamamelidaceae, with three species of large deciduous trees, 25-40m tall, with palmately lobed leaves: Liquidambar formosana - Chinese Sweetgum (central & southern China, Taiwan). ... August Wilhelm von Hofmann (April 8, 1818 _ May 5, 1892) was a German chemist. ... Marcellin Berthelot Marcellin Pierre Eugène Berthelot (October 29, 1827 - March 18, 1907) was a French chemist and politician. ... A macromolecule is a molecule of high relative molecular mass, the structure of which essentially comprises the multiple repetition of units derived, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low relative molecular mass. ... Hermann Staudinger (March 23, 1881 in Worms- Sept. ... IG Farben (short for Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG) was a German conglomerate of companies formed in 1925 and even earlier during World War I. IG Farben held nearly a total monopoly on the chemical production, later during the time of Nazi Germany. ... Map of Germany showing Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen am Rhein is a city in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, with about 166,000 inhabitants. ...

Pure solid polystyrene is a colorless, hard plastic with limited flexibility. It can be cast into molds with fine detail. Polystyrene can be transparent or can be made to take on various colors. It is economical and is used for producing plastic model assembly kits, plastic cutlery, CD "jewel" cases, and many other objects where a fairly rigid, economical plastic of any of various colors is desired. See: transparency (optics) alpha compositing GIF#Transparency transparency (overhead projector) market transparency transparency (telecommunication) transparency (computing) For X11 pseudo-transparency, see pseudo-transparency. ... Revell model of 1964 Ford Thunderbolt Plastic models, often just called scale models, are models manufactured as kits which are assembled by hobbyists, and intended for static display. ... // Jewel case Jewel case A Jewel case is a transparent plastic case which usually contains a compact disc along with the liner notes. ...

Standard bulk form

For architectural and engineering modelling, polystyrene is extruded into forms of standard modelling scale with the cross-sections of a miniature I-beam as well as rods and tubes. It is also formed into sheets with various patterns for this purpose as well. The blank sheets of polystyrene are referred to as "plasticard" in Britain, after the vulgarization of a trademark, but are called "sheet styrene" in the US. I-beams are beams with an I- or H-shaped cross-section. ...

Polystyrene fabricated into a sheet can be stamped (formed) into economic, disposable cups, glasses, bowls, lids, and other items, especially when high strength, durability, and heat resistance are not essential. A thin layer of transparent polystyrene is often used as an infra-red spectroscopy standard. IR spectrum of a thin film of liquid ethanol. ...

Solid foam

Polystyrene's most common use, however, is as expanded polystyrene, which is a mixture of about 5% polystyrene and 95% gaseous blowing agent. Commonly known by the trade name Styrofoam®, this is the lightweight material of which coffee cups and takeaway food containers are made. The voids filled with trapped air give expanded polystyrene low thermal conductivity. This makes it ideal as a construction material and it is used in structural insulated panel building systems. It is also used as insulation in building structures, as molded packing material for cushioning fragile equipment inside boxes, as packing "peanuts", as non-weight-bearing architectural structures (such as pillars), and also in crafts and model building, particularly architectural models. Foamed between two sheets of paper, it makes a more-uniform substitute for corrugated cardboard, tradenamed Fome-Cor. In physics, thermal conductivity, λ or k, is the intensive property of a material which relates its ability to conduct heat. ... Structural insulated panels (or structural insulating panels), SIPs, are a composite building material. ... Insulation means a barrier to the flow of energy, usually heat, but often sound, and sometimes both. ... For other meanings of the term, see column (disambiguation). ... Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with ones own hands and skill. ... A physical model is used in various contexts to mean a physical representation of some thing. ... In the field of building architecture, the skills demanded of an architect range from the more complex, such as for a hospital or a stadium, to something simpler, such as planning simple residential houses. ... I LOVE SHRUTI KAPOOR WHO LIVES IN UTTARKAASHI, WHO WORKED IN HERO ITES GURGAON IN 2004-05 ! Cardboard is a heavy wood-based type of paper, notable for its stiffness and durability. ...

Expanded polystyrene used to contain CFCs, but other, more environmentally-safe blowing agents are now used. Because it is an aromatic hydrocarbon, it burns with an orange-yellow flame, giving off soot, as opposed to non-aromatic hydrocarbon polymers such as polyethylene, which burn with a light yellow flame (often with a blue tinge) and no soot. For other uses, see CFC (disambiguation). ... An aromatic hydrocarbon (abbreviated as AH), or arene is a hydrocarbon, the molecular structure of which incorporates one or more planar sets of six carbon atoms that are connected by delocalised electrons numbering the same as if they consisted of alternating single and double covalent bonds. ... Soot, also called lampblack, Pigment Black 7, or carbon black, is a dark powdery deposit of unburned fuel residues, usually composed mainly of amorphous carbon, that accumulates in chimneys, automobile mufflers and other surfaces exposed to smoke—especially from the combustion of carbon-rich organic fuels in the lack of... Polyethylene or polyethene is a thermoplastic commodity heavily used in consumer products (over 60M tons are produced worldwide every year). ...

Production methods include sheet stamping (PS) and injection molding (both PS and HIPS) Injection molding is a manufacturing technique for making parts from plastic material. ...

The chemical makeup of polystyrene is a long chain hydrocarbon with every other carbon connected to a benzene ring.

A 3-D model would show that each of the chiral backbone carbons lies at the center of a tetrahedron, with its 4 bonds pointing toward the vertices. Say the -C-C- bonds are rotated so that the backbone chain lies entirely in the plane of the diagram. From this flat schematic, it isn't evident which of the phenyl (benzene) groups are angled toward us from the plane of the diagram, and which ones are angled away. The isomer where all of them are on the same side is called isotactic polystyrene, which isn't produced commercially. Ordinary atactic polystyrene has these large phenyl groups randomly distributed on both sides of the chain. This random positioning prevents the chains from ever aligning with sufficient regularity to achieve any crystallinity, so the plastic has no melting temperature, T_m. But metallocene-catalyzed polymerization can produce an ordered syndiotactic polystyrene with the phenyl groups on alternating sides. This form is highly crystalline with a T_m of 270°C. Image File history File links Polystyrene_formation. ... In chemistry, a molecule is chiral if it is not superimposable on its mirror image regardless of how it is contorted. ... For academic journal, see Tetrahedron A tetrahedron (plural: tetrahedra) is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, three of which meet at each vertex. ... A chemical bond is the phenomenon of atoms being held together in molecules, crystals or in solid metal. ... In chemistry, the phenyl group or phenyl ring (often abbreviated as -Ph) is the functional group with the formula -C6H5 Picture where the six carbon atoms are arranged in a cyclic manner. ... In chemistry, isomers are molecules with the same chemical formula and often with the same kinds of bonds between atoms, but in which the atoms are arranged differently. ... It has been suggested that random number be merged into this article or section. ... Crystallinity is the degree of structural order in a solid, often represented by a fraction or percentage. ... The melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. ... In chemistry, and in particular, in organometallic chemistry, a metallocene is a compound consisting of an aromatic organic ligand bound to a metal. ... Generic graph showing the effect of a catalyst in an hypotetical exothermic chemical reaction. ... Polymerization is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form linear chains or a three-dimensional network of polymer chains [1]. There are many forms of polymerization and different systems exist to categorize them. ...

Standard markings

The resin identification code symbol for polystyrene, developed by the Society of the Plastics Industry so that items can be labeled for easy recycling, is . Unfortunately, the majority of polystyrene products are currently not recycled due to a lack of suitable recycling facilities. Furthermore, when it is "recycled," it is not a closed loop — polystyrene cups and other packaging materials are usually recycled into fillers in other plastics, or other items that can not be themselves recycled and are thrown away. Sorted household plastic waiting to be hauled away for reprocessing. ... The Society of the Plastics Industry developed symbols for plastics so that they could be recycled easier. ... Image File history File links Plastic resin recycle code 06. ...

The Unicode character is &#9848, which will appear here if you have a suitable font installed: ♸. Unicode is an industry standard whose goal is to provide the means by which text of all forms and languages can be encoded for use by computers. ...

Toughening

Pure polystyrene is brittle, but hard enough that a fairly high-performance product can be made by giving it some of the properties of a stretchier material, such as polybutadiene rubber. The two materials cannot normally be mixed due to the amplified effect of intermolecular forces on polymer solubility (see plastic recycling), but if polybutadiene is added during polymerization it can become chemically bonded to the polystyrene, forming a graft copolymer which helps to incorporate normal polybutadiene into the final mix, resulting in high-impact polystyrene or HIPS, often called "high-impact plastic" in advertisements. Common applications include use in toys and product casings. HIPS is usually injection molded in production. Toughness, in material science and metallurgy, is the resistance to fracture of a material when suddenly stressed. ... In materials science, hardness is the characteristic of a solid material expressing its resistance to permanent deformation. ... Polybutadiene is a synthetic rubber that has a high resistance to wear and is used especially in the manufacture of tires. ... A polymer is a long, repeating chain of atoms, formed through the linkage of many molecules called monomers. ... A solvent is a liquid that dissolves a solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution. ... Plastic recycling is the process of taking scrap or waste plastics and recovering the material for use in manufacturing. ... A graft copolymer has polymer chains of one kind growing out of the sides of polymer chains with a different chemical composition. ... Injection moulding (United States Injection Molding) is a manufacturing technique for making parts from plastic material. ...

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or ABS plastic is similar to HIPS: a copolymer of acrylonitrile and styrene, toughened with polybutadiene. Most electronics cases are made of this form of polystyrene, as are many sewer pipes. Monomers in ABS polymer Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS, (chemical formula ) is a common thermoplastic used to make light, rigid, molded products such as pipes, golf club heads (used for its good shock absorbance), automotive body parts, enclosures and toys including LEGO bricks. ...

Styrene can be copolymerized with other monomers; for example, divinylbenzene for cross-linking the polystyrene chains.

Cutting and shaping

Expanded polystyrene is very easily cut with a hot-wire foam cutter, which is easily made by a heated and taut length wire, usually nichrome due to nichrome's resistance to oxidation at high temperatures and its suitable electrical conductivity. The hot wire foam cutter works by heating the wire to the point where it can vaporize foam immediately adjacent to it. The foam gets vaporized before actually touching the heated wire, which yields exceptionally smooth cuts. Polystyrene, shaped and cut with hot wire foam cutters, is used in architecture models, actual signage, amusement park and movie sets, airplane construction, and much more. A hot-wire foam cutter is used to cut polystyrene foam and similar materials. ... Nichrome is a non-magnetic alloy of nickel and chromium. ... Electrical conductivity is a measure of how well a material accommodates the transport of electric charge. ...

Hot wire foam cutters are available for anywhere from under a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars for large CNC machines. A CNC Turning Center The abbreviation CNC stands for Computer(ized) Numerical(ly) Control(led), and refers specifically to the computer control of machine tools for the purpose of (repeatedly) manufacturing complex parts in metal as well as other materials, using a program written in a notation conforming to the...

Finishing

In the United States, environmental protection regulations prohibit the use of solvents on polystyrene (which would dissolve the polystyrene and de-foam most of foams anyway).

Some acceptable finishing materials are

• Water-based paint
• Mortar, often used in the building industry as a weather-hard overcoat that makes the foam disappear completely after finishing the objects.
• Cotton wool or other fabrics used in conjunction with a stapling implement.

For information on the U.S. borough, see Paint, Pennsylvania. ... Mortar holding bricks. ...

See also

• Structural insulated panel
• ThermaSAVE

Structural insulated panels (or structural insulating panels), SIPs, are a composite building material. ... ThermaSAVE is a panel building system using 4- to 12-inch-thick core of expanded polystyrene (similiar to styrofoam) sandwiched between two stress skinned half-inch sheets of cement. ...

External links

• Tutorial on working with styrofoam
• Macrogalleria: Polystyrene
• Society of the Plastics Industry
• DOW.com – Styrofoam
• Dow Chemical Plastics
• Polystyrene.org
• Arguments against polystyrene