Functional Remodeling Of Waste Polystyrene Foam

With the development of the plastics industry and the applications of plastic products, plastic waste disposal has become a difficult problem, during which the white pollution has become a global scourge. Polystyrene (PS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) are the most widely used plastics, As far as the situation of our country is concerned, the non-toxic or low toxic solvent which can quickly dissolve polystyrene foam is selected which could convert the waste polystyrene foam into useful material. In this work, our purpose is to realize sustainable development and circular economy which could change waste into treasure.The commonly used recovery methods for PS(or EPS) includes:1 transforming PS into styrene monomer, oil and asphalt by thermal decomposition; 2 Regeneration of polystyrene by melt extrusion materials; 3. Directly broken and added into the new compound; 4. Solvent recovery distillation; 5 using waste polystyrene production as filler. Although there are a serial of methods for PS recycling, the perfect method to produce high-grade, high purity polystyrene with real commercial value is rare. Some methods can not remove organic impurity from particles of PS, which results in the lower-quality of recycled polystyrene. Another method by solvent recovery have disadvantages of time-consuming, device complexity, high energy consumption. Some researcher has reported to recycle waste polystyrene by limonene, however the solvent is expensive and does not have industrial value. In summary, the currently technologies to recycle polystyrene have series of problems.The purpose of this paper is to find an appropriate hydrophobic solvent which can absorb PS by phase separation, during the single organic solvents could be easily recovered. Also the black anti-static polystyrene particles prepared by this method. By studying various factors during recycling of polystyrene foam such as mixing speed, heating rate, the amount of surfactant, oil and water than other factors, a group of optimal processing conditions with the advantages of simple, low cost, pure ingredients, economic benefits is found. Under this experimental condition, polystyrene particles have been obtained. The properties are characterized by physical and mechanical testing, infrared spectroscopy, and carbon and hydrogen elemental analysis. The anti-static electric particles is prepared under the best conditions, and characterized by microscope, infrared, X-ray diffraction, electrical performance. The relationship among the percolation threshold, the resistivity and usage of graphite is investigated.The recovery method in this paper has advantages of low cost, high product quality, low environmental pollution, readily for industrial production, and perfect economic returns. This recovery method overcomes disadvantages including expensive and toxic, product impurities, resulting in secondary pollution. And so on. According to this process method, conductive polystyrene particles were prepared. It is a good conductive polymer material to overcome the poor performance in the processing and applications. It solves static phenomenon which is the most prominent problems.