I'm trying to make acetophenone from styrene, but I am having issues sourcing styrene.
all my searches are clogged with plastic, of which no detailed composition is given.
Anyone have a place that sells pure styrene?
or maybe a method to get reasonably pure styrene from common sources?
I have read briefly about destructive polymerization, but i'd rather not go about melting plastic, because it seems like it'd make a big smelly mess.Fleaker - 5-4-2011 at 12:53
You don't want to distill styrofoam of PS cups. A lot of really stinky things are produced.
Instead, go to a place that supplies fiberglass shops. It's fairly cheap, about $30/US gallon.
Contrabasso - 5-4-2011 at 12:58
IIRC thinners 101 (or is it 1001?) is styrene as used in the GRP industry for thinning the polyester resin. Yes it is (was ) available in big cans,
BUT as a functional thinners for a work process it may (will) not be technical grade.smuv - 5-4-2011 at 13:17
You don't want to distill styrofoam of PS cups. A lot of really stinky things are produced.
I don't really wanna question your authority here, if you tried that personally, 'cause I hadn't.
But I've read reports of people having successfully pyrolyzed CD boxes (PS) to yield styrene.
Just my two cents.Hexagon - 6-4-2011 at 09:40
Styrene monomer is cheap and a readily available stuff, and it's true that you can pirolize CD cases, yougurth cups, what ever is made with PS, to
styrene monomer if you dont want to deal with supply houses or you want to go on the cheap as free schale. The monomer will not be as pure as the
comercial one though.ScienceSquirrel - 6-4-2011 at 11:22
The pyrolysis of polystyrene will produce a reasonable sample of styrene of about 50 - 75% purity from the examples I have seen.
If you are going to make acetophenone out of it this is good enough as you can clean it up at the next stage.Hexagon - 6-4-2011 at 12:40
Distilling out the monomer from the pyrolized mixture should yield pure styrene, the remaining high boilers upon another pyrolization should yield
more impure styrene, true?ScienceSquirrel - 6-4-2011 at 12:55
It depends on the conditions but there are other things produced eg benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, napthalene, etc.
There is a lab procedure here and their product seems reasonably pure.
[Edited on 6-4-2011 by ScienceSquirrel]Fleaker - 6-4-2011 at 19:32
I have destructively distilled polystyrene foam and extruded product before, and the pyrolysis does not go well. Something that is very lachrymatory
is made and it was an unhappy experience. Maybe I should have vacuum-distilled it. mowsala - 6-5-2011 at 08:49
