What kind of polymer is polystyrene

Topics: Plastics. Our expertise and unique collaborative process alleviates your stress and helps take your Design, Engineering and Prototyping process to the next level. Home About Contact Blog. Email: info creativemechanisms. Call Now: What are the Characteristics of Polystyrene? Why is Polystyrene used so often? How is PS made? Is PS toxic? What are the Disadvantages of Polystyrene? What are the properties of PS? Subscribe To Blog Notifications. Take Your Product Development Process to the Next Level Companies that develop a product on a consistent basis are under tremendous pressure to: Create Innovative designs Properly engineer the designs for production Be successful in very short timeframes Our expertise and unique collaborative process alleviates your stress and helps take your Design, Engineering and Prototyping process to the next level.

Contact Us. The primary reasons for its great popularity are its low cost, high transparency, good mechanical properties and ease of coloring, foaming, and processing. Commercial polystyrene is mostly synthesized by bulk, suspension or solution polymerization of ethylbenzene styrene. The most common method is free radical polymerization, using benzoyl peroxide as initiator.

However, other initiators such as redox systems and azo compounds can be used as well to start the polymerization. The reaction is exothermic, and thus the monomer-polymer mixture has to be cooled. In the case of bulk or mass polymerization , the reaction exotherm is controlled by using a two-stage polymerization process.

In the first stage, the styrene is polymerized in a stirred tank reactor, the so-called pre-polymerizer. Only a low conversion is achieved. The mixture of dispersed polymer in monomer is then transferred to a tubular thin-film reactor. The pure molten polystyrene that emerges from the reactor is pumped through spinnerets or through an extruder to produce the desired finished granulate mm pellets. PS can also be prepared by solution and suspension techniques.

Both processes can be carried out in batch or continuously. In the case of solution polymerization , styrene is dissolved in a suitable solvent such as ethylbenzene, which makes temperature control much easier. However, the presence of solvent reduces the molecular weight and lowers the transparency due to a higher degree of impurities. It is a major contributor to the debris in the ocean. Although recycable, polystyrene is not recycled in many parts of the world. The biggest problem is expandable polystyrene EPS ; due to its low density, it takes up a relative large amount of space in landfills.

In recent years, the food packaging industry has developed alternative insulating plastics for thermal applications, like Versalite which is an expanded polypropylene PP that can be recycled right along with other PP products in the general recycle stream.

We expect other lower-cost and lower-density resins to gain market share in traditional large volume applications of expandable polystyrene. Polystyrene is one of the most important commodity plastics. The production volume of polystyrene and styrene copolymers is several million tons per year.

GPPS : General purpose polystyrene, also known as crystal-clear polystyrene, is a fully transparent, rigid and rather brittle low cost thermoplastic made from styrene monomer. GPPS is a solid product manufactured in the form of mm pellets. HIPS is a graft copolymer having polystyrene sidearms.

The grafting occurs when some of the radicals react with the double bonds of the polybutadiene. Styrene occurs naturally in many foods and beverages. Styrene also is manufactured as a building block for materials used to make automobiles, electronics, boats, recreational vehicles, toys and countless other consumer products. People can come into contact with styrene from the small amounts that may be present in air primarily from automobile exhaust and cigarette smoke and in foods and packaging.

Styrene is naturally present in many foods, such as cinnamon, beef, coffee beans, peanuts, wheat, oats, strawberries and peaches. In addition, FDA has approved styrene as a food additive — it can be added in small amounts to baked goods, frozen dairy products, candy, gelatins, puddings and other food. For more than 70 years, styrene has been used as a chemical building block to make the materials used in a wide variety of finished consumer products, such as food containers, rubber tires, building insulation, carpet backing and boat hulls, surfboards, residential kitchen countertops, bathtubs and shower enclosures.

The difference is chemistry. Styrene is a liquid that can be chemically linked to create polystyrene, a solid plastic that displays different properties. Polystyrene is used to make a variety of consumer products, such as foodservice containers, cushioning for shipping delicate electronics and insulation. Extruded polystyrene XPS foam is a rigid insulation that has also formed with polystyrene polymer, but manufactured using an extrusion process. Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group.

Tweets by AmChemistry. Home Polystyrene Polystyrene. Polystyrene in Automotive Polystyrene solid and foam is used to make many car parts, including knobs, instrument panels, trim, energy absorbing door panels and sound dampening foam. Polystyrene in Electronics Polystyrene is used for the housing and other parts for televisions, computers and all types of IT equipment, where the combination of form, function and aesthetics are essential.

Polystyrene in Foodservice Polystyrene foodservice packaging typically insulates better, keeps food fresher longer and costs less than alternatives.

Polystyrene in Insulation Lightweight polystyrene foam provides excellent thermal insulation in numerous applications, such as building walls and roofing, refrigerators and freezers, and industrial cold storage facilities.