polystyrene
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Polystyrene is a lightweight plastic material commonly used to make everyday products like yogurt containers, takeout cups, and protective packaging. It matters because it's inexpensive and easy to mold into detailed shapes, making it useful for food storage and shipping, though its environmental impact is a significant concern.
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40 sectionsContents
- History
- Structure and production
- Production
- Tacticity
- Atactic polystyrene
- Syndiotactic polystyrene
- Degradation
- Organisms
- Forms produced
- Sheet or molded polystyrene
- Foams
- Expanded polystyrene (EPS)
- EPS in building construction
- Extruded polystyrene (XPS)
- Water absorption of polystyrene foams
- Oriented polystyrene
- Co-polymers
- Styrene-butane co-polymers
- Impact-resistant polystyrene (PS-I)
- Styrene-butadiene rubber
- Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
- Others
- Environmental issues
- Production
- Environmental degradation
- Litter
- Reducing
- United States
- Outside the United States
- Recycling
- Upcycling
- Incineration
- Safety
- Health
- Fire hazards
- See also
- References
- Sources
- Bibliography
- External links
thumb|Expanded polystyrene packaging thumb|A polystyrene yogurt container thumb|Bottom of a vacuum forming|vacuum-formed cup; fine details such as the glass and fork [[food contact materials symbol and the resin identification code symbol are easily molded]]
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. By weight, it is considered a relatively cheap resin and a fairly poor barrier to oxygen and water vapor, with a relatively low melting point. Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics, with the scale of its production being several million tonnes per year. Polystyrene is naturally transparent to visible light, but can be colored with colorants. Uses include protective packaging (such as packing peanuts and optical disc jewel cases), containers, lids, bottles, trays, tumblers, disposable cutlery, models, and (as an alternative material to vinyl) phonograph records.
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Building insulation materialsChembox image size setChemicals that do not have a ChemSpider ID assignedChemicals without a PubChem CIDCommodity chemicalsCommons link is on WikidataECHA InfoCard ID from WikidataFood packagingFree-content attributionFree content from United Nations Environment ProgrammeInsulatorsOrganic polymers