[mundhadashantanu]

Hi all,

We are working on a project of safe disposal of polystyrene. One of the ways is to dissolve the polymer in organic solvents and use the jelly for various purposes. I have a few questions regarding that.

1. What is the end product when polystyrene dissolved in benzene or petrol? Do the polymer chains break into monomeric styrene or any shorter chains? Or is it a simple dissolution without any bond breakage? If possible please direct me to a reference on mechanism for this dissolution.

2. The jelly formed after dissolution of polystyrene in petrol can be used as a glue for many purposes. Apparently when you heat the jelly and then stick it, the glue works better. I am interested in knowing the reason behind this.

3. It seems it is banned to use solvents on Polystyrene in USA. Does anybody know what are the reasons behind this?

Getting these answers and some concrete reference will be very helpful in our project. I hope we can contribute towards disposal of plastic waste.

-Shantanu

[Hunter2]

1. The polymer is dissolved without braking of bonds.

2. If you heat it the solvent disappears more or less and so it sticks better.

3. Every medial has two side.  This mixture can be used like Napalm. If it thrown in a battle field the glue stick to the people and equipment and if it burns it is not easy to extinguish.

[mundhadashantanu]

Hi Hunter 2. Thank you for the reply. Can you suggest me a reference where I can read about all this? It will be nice to quote the reference in my project.!!

-Shantanu