Know About Expanded Polystyrene Foam
Expanded Polystyrene Foam (EPF) is a polymer material with unique properties because of its structure. It is made up of individual cells of low-density polystyrene EPF is extremely light and can hold many multiple times the weight of its water weight. Because the cells are not connected, heat can't travel through EPF quickly, which is why it's excellent insulation.
EPF can be found in flotation devices as insulation, egg cartons, flats for meat, produce sandwich or hamburger boxes, coffee cups plates, containers for peanuts, plates as well as picnic coolers.
Foam coolers in Hawaii is often referred to as Styrofoam, Styrofoam is a trademark of the Dow Chemical Company and refers specifically to a particular type of blue, hard EPF that is used in boating.
In the last quarter of the 1800s in the late 1800s, researchers looking for suitable materials to make a film, carriage windshields, and other small objects like combs created early plastics out of organic compounds and chemicals.
In the process of making these plastics, they tapped into the natural tendency to polymerize where smaller molecules or monomers, are combined to create chains that are usually extremely long. The molecular chains that are formed (also known as polymers) are repeated structural units derived from the original molecules.
The most well-known natural polymer is called cellulose, the glucose-containing string which is the primary constituent of cell walls in plants cotton, paper along rayon. Polystyrene is among the most well-known synthetic polymers (others include polypropylene, polyethylene as well as polyester).
Styrene is the hydrocarbon liquid that EPF is produced in, was created in the latter part of the 19th century, from the storax sam, which is a species of tree found in Asia Minor known as"the Oriental sweet gum. At the beginning of the 19th century, entirely synthetic plastics were created using hydrocarbons, whose structure allows for easy polymerization. Polystyrene, the plastic that EPF is created, was discovered in 1938.
Foaming plastics were initially discovered by accident since at first nobody could appreciate the advantages. They were discovered by Dr. Leo H. Baekeland is the American chemical engineer who created the first synthetically-made plastic, bakelite using the chemical phenol (an acidic chemical compound) along with formaldehyde