Need help with chemistry

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XPE

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Really stuck with this and would be thankful for some help as google hasn't been that helpful.


when polystyrene dissolves in acetone, what properties does the solution have?

what is the gas given off when the item dissolves ?
 
What sort of polystyrene?

The foamy type stuff is full of air, so any gas coming off is probably just air.

What properties of the solution are you looking for here?

For the record, there's loads of information if you google it.
 
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alexhull24 said:
What sort of polystyrene?

The foamy type stuff is full of air, so any gas coming off is probably just air.

What properties of the solution are you looking for here?

For the record, there's loads of information if you google it.
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I though it was air but when you google it people were worried about the gas that it given off so it kinda put me off air as my answer.

As for the solution i think its just asking you what the solution is when you dissolve a bit of polystyrene in acetone, does it dissolve completely or does it mix with the acetone?

Burnsy2023 said:
Isn't that the basic ingredients of Napalm?
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I have absolutely no idea I'm an useless at chemistry which is why I'm asking about it here :D

Edit: i asume you are talking about acetone
 
I'm guessing the polystyrene polymers are being broken down into their monomers, which would be styrene, which is why the cup dissolves. The gas released would be what ever gas was pumped into it in the first place when the polystyrene was initially formed (from styrene), which at a guess I would say was either air or nitrogen (as cheap and harmless).
 
Thats a lot of help guy and thanks but i have one last question, what is the plasticiser used in modern cling film?
 
dekez said:
I'm guessing the polystyrene polymers are being broken down into their monomers, which would be styrene, which is why the cup dissolves. The gas released would be what ever gas was pumped into it in the first place when the polystyrene was initially formed (from styrene), which at a guess I would say was either air or nitrogen (as cheap and harmless).
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not the monomers - its just the polymer dissolving in acetone.
no gas is evolved when PS dissolves in acetone - if any gas comes off when dissolving expanded PS it has nothing to do with the PS itself and depends what gas they used to expand the polymer as it was made.

as for the properties of the solution i don't know what they want to hear - its PS in acetone, so it will have the properties of both?!?! a bit of a stupid question to ask.
 
aardvark said:
not the monomers - its just the polymer dissolving in acetone.
no gas is evolved when PS dissolves in acetone - if any gas comes off when dissolving expanded PS it has nothing to do with the PS itself and depends what gas they used to expand the polymer as it was made.

as for the properties of the solution i don't know what they want to hear - its PS in acetone, so it will have the properties of both?!?! a bit of a stupid question to ask.
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This is more correct. The polymer won't be broken down by acetone.

Sometimes the gases used to make PS all foamy and expand (it's almost all air - 90% ish) are not so nice (e.g. pentane) to breathe in a lot of, but after a while (usually by the time the material reaches you from the factory) most of the gas has diffused out, and so just air is left.

The only thing I could think of about the solution is that the viscosity would increase quite a lot, though this does depend on amounts and concentrations used, as well as the molecular weight of the polystyrene.
 
alexhull24 said:
The only thing I could think of about the solution is that the viscosity would increase quite a lot, though this does depend on amounts and concentrations used, as well as the molecular weight of the polystyrene.
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true, i forgot about that - but you need quite a lot of polystyrene to make it viscous.
 
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