Doing Chemistry with a Styrofoam Box

Styrene is a chemical that is around us all the time. Let's make some from a shipping box.

I recently got some chemicals in the mail, and they came in this styrofoam box to keep them cold during transport. I know it's styrofoam due to the PS and number 6. This says that it's polystyrene, a polymer of styrene.
Styrene is one of those compounds that is well known but not at the same time. It is used in most plastics and rubbers. Styrofoam is the most produced, but it's also used in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Those who are 3D printing enthusiasts know it as ABS plastic.

In the lab styrene can be synthesized a few ways, the most common of which is dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene, this becomes pointless when we take a look back at polystyrene. The reason why is that it's a polymer; all we need to do if we want styrene is to completely depolymerize the polystyrene, which is easier said than done.

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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:12 Making Smaller
02:17 Reaction
04:15 purification
06:12 Analysis
08:21 Closing

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