How many #"styrene molecules"# are fused together to make #"polystyrene"#?

1 Answer
anor277
Aug 13, 2017

In fact 1000's of styrene monomers are fused........

Explanation:

The monomer #"styrene"# #=# #C_6H_5-CH=CH_2#, i.e. it is ethylene with a pendant phenyl group. This is an easy monomer to polymerize, but some metal catalysts can clip together some 1000's of monomers...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene

Molecular weights of #500000*g*mol^-1# are known; that is a chain of 5000 monomers.

The problem with the stuff is that the polymer is very stable, and degrades very reluctantly. You probably have a load of packaging material around the house that you have to chuck out. Get on the case!

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