how to melt styrofoam without acetone

Place the container on a flat surface and fill it up with an acetone. Acetone also instantly melts Styrofoam into a gummy, runny consistency. Styrofoam is a low-density plastic commonly used for its insulating properties. If the acetone will melt your plastic, the melting will occur on contact. Acetone. Still have questions? Thank you for your answer it was greatly detailed, however I am not after making a solid sculpture just a '99% Air' sculpture. PS is pretty inert and melts at like 250 C depending on the molecular weight. It needs to be pure acetone, not regular nail polish remover. It will be fun to satisfy your curiosity. Di-ethyl ether, R-O-R', will probably dissolve styrofoam. Firstly, you might think there is nothing to prepare, but we encourage you to try to paint the Styrofoam in one color – For example, you can paint heart-shaped block with red color. Now Follow These Steps: WARNING: Please follow the manufacturer's warnings on the container of acetone. The Styrofoam will dissolve in the acetone much like sugar dissolves in hot water. However, since it is a plastic, styrofoam will melt at high temperatures. How do you calculate how much room temperature water (23.3°C) will be needed to drop the temperature of warm water from 50°C to 42°C. Acetone breaks the structure of polystyrene in its expanded form, styrofoam. For this experiment, you will need a small dish, a container of acetone (available at home supply stores) or fingernail polish remover (contains acetone), and styrofoam pellets or a styrofoam plate or cup. Which is good start, but then you'd have to remove the solvent, presumably it could just air dry? Besides acetone, what else dissolves styrofoam? A scientist from Ukraine shows what happens when styrofoam comes into contact with acetone. First: Pour ½ cup of acetone into the bowl. Poke a hole in the bottom with a pencil. Make an experiment in the laboratory using all available liquid chemicals and record your observations. Amines will probably dissolve styrofoam. Depending on how you go about forming the PS and how large the polymer chains are, it could be clear (fast cooling/amorphous phase) or opaque (slow cooling/crystalline phase). If ice is less dense than liquid water, shouldn’t it behave as a gas? Disposable cups and plates are commonly made out of styrofoam because it allows for hot food or drink to remain hot without burning the person holding the cup or plate. The change that takes place is a physical change, not a chemical one; the acetone softens and disrupts the polystyrene so the polymer chains can slide past each other, allowing the air in the bubbles to escape. Put the cap on the top of the jar, or cover it with a heavy object like a book and let the jar sit for several minutes while the acetone breaks down the styrofoam. According to the above site. How do you think about the answers? It's magical. They are triglycerides of high molecular weight fatty acids. Basically you take molten PS and then blow a volatile blowing agent in order to foam it. Newsflare. Follow. Thank you. Dissolve styrofoam with acetone using tips from this how-to video. Leave your suggestions in the comment section below. First, you must select an appropriate glue type that is suitable for creating a bond on the surface without melting the material. When acetone is used as a solvent, the expanded polystyrene will easily dissolve and you’ll be left with a liquid acetone/polystyrene solution. Since Styrofoam is mostly air, you may be surprised by how much (or, in the end, how little) foam will dissolve in the acetone. Then, you simply dry the surface of the foam and apply it as evenly as you can, per the directions on the packaging. Now if I glued scrap packaging boxes together I would have say 50 layers of PS which would be more glue than PS, this is doable and achievable, but not what I am after. It’s also not the easiest thing to deal with as a waste stream, either. Besides acetone, what else dissolves styrofoam? Polystyrene is made from the monomer styrene, an organic compound, which is catalyzed and turns into polystyrene, a solid plastic which is readily soluble in acetone. Then wait one to five minutes for some of the acetone to evaporate. Browse more videos. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Acetone ; Step 1 – Prepare the Styrofoam. If you dissolve the Styrofoam in acetone you would just have a bunch of dissolved polymers. nPentane, nHexane, nHeptane, nOctane. A scientist from Ukraine shows what happens when styrofoam comes into contact with acetone. The acetone (formula (CH3)2CO) breaks the bonds that hold the polystyrene together. Over the holidays I came across some unusual shaped packing material made from styrofoam. Acetone (nail polish remover) Styrofoam cups. Acetone is a handy solvent found in nail polish remover and paint-store denatured alcohol. Source: quora.com. spontaneous combustion - how does it work? Watch the Styrofoam cup slowly shrinks as it touches the acetone. You can soak styrofoam in an enclosed bottle and see what happens). Please do not touch these. Craig Beals from BealsScience.com shows how acetone breaks the bonds of styrofoam polystyrene. read more . acetone. Fruits are sweeter and take less effort to arrange, generally, so I tend to eat more fruits. Styrofoam is actually a common name for a material called polystyrene, which is a polymer made up of a long chain of molecules. "Melt" Styrofoam. Does the water used during shower coming from the house's water tank contain chlorine? This is basically what is done to recycle PS. Footage filmed on October 1 shows the material melt when it … In other words, acetone "dissolves" polystyrene. Incidentally, these are the major components of what you place in your gas tank. As the air escapes the volume of the styrofoam … Then you might have a puck of PS if it dries properly. Use markers or paint to turn a Styrofoam plate into a shining sun. Melting styrofoam with acetone! Subscribe to my 2nd channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCq2UyupGA33N6ezKKRgKHfQWhat will happen if you pour acetone onto styrofoam?! Alcohols (with an -OH group) and other polar compounds will not dissolve styrofoam. Glue white packing peanuts into the shape of a little igloo. 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Wi… Gluing styrofoam to other surfaces or even other pieces of styrofoam is not a complicated process. ................O-(CH2)4-CH3 (amyl acetate) in the laboratory, try dipping your plastic comb in amyl acetate and see how it would look like. Because Styrofoam is plastic-based, you'll want to avoid using any glues that contain a solvent that can dissolve plastic. If you can have an access to. The video, uploaded by YouTube channel Let's Melt This, shows acetone — commonly used as nail polish remover — dissolving a Styrofoam cup on a plate. pretty sure limonene (from citrus) does too. I was just hoping I could repeat the initial manufacturing method of steaming/boiling the many pieces of styrene to make it somewhat maluable to form then into a block (I am wanting to try and keep the styrene consistency somewhat unaffected, or if needs to be melted then re-enhanced to reach back to or close to the original consistency). Continue pushing Styrofoam into the acetone until the blocks you put in don't melt anymore. last year | 40 views. This foaming process is more complicated than it seems, I've never done it but I remember studying it in polymer engineering. The fun element comes at the later part of the video. Common packaging styrofoam is actually puffed polystyrene, the same polymer that’s used to make things like CD cases and plastic model parts. For starters I would like to try and achieve a 1 cubic metre block. Second: Slowly lower a Styrofoam cup into the acetone. The acetone is a solvent that easily breaks down the polystyrene, releasing the little air pockets trapped inside and leaving very little residue at the end. Styrofoam dissolves in acetone, it doesn't actually melt - melting requires heat. You can sign in to vote the answer. Why they are they, and they don,t even learn? If they spill nail polish remover on there coffee cup which is made of Styrofoam it is important to know how fast it will take for the cup to dissolve. What are examples of organic solvents that will dissolve styrofoam, similar to soybean oil ? Theoretical mix RA of 3.8 (lower= better) But 25% d'limonene to 75% M.E.K has a theoretical RA of 3.7 . This short video is about melting a styro cup without fire. Styropyro shows a classic demonstration of "The Vanishing Cup" experiment. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, A community for chemists and those who love chemistry, Press J to jump to the feed. Since PS is a solid, the chains are "frozen" and need to be mobilized in order to reform them physically. Remember that polystyrene is made up of many smaller molecules called monostyrene. Using one of these may erode your Styrofoam, creating a liquid mess and ruining your project. Insert craft glue into the hole, then slide in a wooden dowel for the handle. 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Styropyro shows a classic demonstration of `` the Vanishing cup '' experiment: pour ½ cup of acetone into bowl. Casting it into a block and cooling it down a container, slightly larger than styrofoam! Di-Ethyl ether, R-O-R ', will probably dissolve styrofoam? the Dow Chemical Company Dow. With acetone acetone until the blocks you put in do n't melt.. Melt anymore, Aliphatic Hydrocarbons ( liquids ), benzene, etc you can buy in the acetone much sugar... It ’ s also not the easiest thing to deal with as a gas material made from styrofoam escape. Things you will need: a container, slightly larger than the styrofoam in acetone you would have... Stream, either you dissolve the styrofoam cup, being used to package everything from food to futons of. Material called polystyrene, the melting will occur on contact often contains both alcohol and.! Please Follow the manufacturer 's warnings on the molecular weight ( nail polish remover to speed the. 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