Polystyrene (styrofoam) is extracted from oil. Thousands of small units of styrene, called monomers, link together to form large molecules of polystyrene by a process called polymerisation.
Expanded polystyrene starts as small spherical beads with a typical diameter of 0.5-1.5mm. They contain an expanding agent; a pure hydrocarbon, which does not contain any halogens and does not damage the earth's protective ozone layer.
When the beads are heated with steam, the agent starts to boil, the polymer softens and the beads expand to about forty times their initial size. After a maturing period to equilibrate temperature and pressure, the pre-foamed beads, which now have a closed cellular foam structure, are placed in a mould and again reheated with steam.
The mould can be designed to meet any requirements of the customer. The pre-foamed beads expand further, completely fill the mould cavity and fuse together. When moulded, nearly all the volume of the EPS foam (in fact 98%) is air. This is what makes EPS so lightweight and buoyant.
---Shawn
Polystyrene is NOT biodegradable
Rigid polystyrene is a hard plastic Rigid polystyrene is a hard plastic
Answer: The raw material of the Polystyrene has a density of around 1.05 g/l, or kg/m3 . which is a little bit more than water's Regarding the processed material there are two main types of polystyrene density-wise;EPS = Expanded PolyStyrene:most used in the range of: 10 - 50 g/lEXPS or XPS = EXtruded PolyStyrene:most used in the range of: 25 - 45 g/l
The atactic polystyrene is more crystalline than the syndiotactic polystyrene.
Because polystyrene is the polymer of the monomer styrene; poli in the Greek language has the meaning of many.
Polystyrene is a kind of hard plastic.
Polystyrene is obtained by the polymerization of the monomer styrene.
Polystyrene is not very dense.
Polystyrene is today difficult to be recycled.
Polystyrene was discovered in Germany. Eduard Simon discovered it in 1839. He was from Berlin. Polystyrene is also called thermocole.
the polystyrene film is cover all the ir range.
Its quite fun to pretend your King Kong and break the polystyrene!