Degradation
Polystyrene is very chemically inert, being resistant to acids and bases. Because of its resilience and inertness, it is used to fabricate many objects of commerce. It is attacked by many organic solvents, which dissolve the polymer. Foamed polystyrene is used for packaging chemicals.
Like all organic compounds, polystyrene burns to give carbon dioxide and water vapor. Polystyrene, being an aromatic hydrocarbon, typically combusts incompletely as indicated by the sooty flame.
Read more about this topic: Polystyrene
Famous quotes containing the word degradation:
“We found nothing grand in the history of the Jews nor in the morals inculcated in the Pentateuch.... I know of no other books that so fully teach the subjection and degradation of woman.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Such poverty as we have today in all our great cities degrades the poor, and infects with its degradation the whole neighborhood in which they live. And whatever can degrade a neighborhood can degrade a country and a continent and finally the whole civilized world, which is only a large neighborhood.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“I suppose one has a greater sense of intellectual degradation after an interview with a doctor than from any human experience.”
—Alice James (1848–1892)