Building blocks of Styrofoam

Have you ever wondered what makes up different materials around the house? What happens when you break something down to see what it's made of? You can do this experiment and find out!

The Experiment

This experiment is based on a similar experiment from Science Kids.

Materials:

Styrofoam cup or packing peanuts

nail polish remover

small dish or bowl

rubber gloves

Try it out:

1. Add nail polish remover to your dish or bowl until there is about half an inch of liquid
2. Place your styrofoam materials in the dish
3. Wait for a few minutes. What happens? How does the styrofoam look now?
4. Try tipping out the nail polish remover and looking at what's left behind
5. Check out some styrofoam and the material you just made under a microscope if you have one

What's happening

Styrofoam is a material made up of polymers. Polymers are long molecule chains made up of repeating blocks like this one:

You can think of polymers like bits of string. They wiggle and bend into different shapes. Polymers are flexible and strong. When groups of polymers join together and bond, they become solid and you get new materials like styrofoam. The bonds that join polymers together are called cross-links.

When you added the nail polish remover to the styrofoam, you break the cross-links. The polymer chains become like bits of string again.

If you thought this was cool...

This experiment is related to materials science and engineering. Materials scientists and engineers study the way different materials work and try to make new ones. You can find out more here.