Polystyrene

Polystyrene is made by stringing together, or polymerising, styrene, a building-block chemical used in the manufacture of many products. Styrene also occurs naturally in foods such as strawberries, cinnamon, coffee and beef.

It is a versatile plastic used in a number of different forms to make a wide variety of consumer products:

• As a hard, solid plastic, it is often used in products that require transparency, such as food packaging and laboratory ware.
• When combined with colourants, additives or other plastics, polystyrene is used to make appliances, electronics, automobile parts, toys, gardening pots and equipment, and so on.
• When made into a foam material, called expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XPS), it is valued for its insulating and cushioning properties. Foam polystyrene can be more than 95% air and is widely used to make home and appliance insulation, lightweight protective packaging, surfboards, food service and food packaging, automobile parts, roadway and roadbank stabilisation systems, and so on.

[edit] Find out more

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Carbon fibre.
• Composites.
• ETFE.
• Fire behaviour of expanded polystyrene.
• Glass reinforced plastic.
• Insulation.
• Packaging.
• Plastic.
• Polyethylene.
• Polyurethane (PUR).
• Transparent insulation materials.