Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

krk
Lv 7

Why Styrofoam melts in kerosene?

How much Styrofoam can be dissolved in one liter kerosene ?

3 Answers

Relevance
  • Gary H
    Lv 7
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Your first question is wrong, unless you have heated your kerosene, the styrofoam does not melt, it dissolves.

    Second question... It depends. The solubility of one thing in another thing varies with temperature. Typically, the solubility increases with increasing temperature but there are exceptions. If you want to know the max solubility for styrofoam in kerosene at STP, you may be able to find that in chemical handbooks.

  • 9 years ago

    probably for the same reason it melts in gasoline:

    Like polystyrene, the compounds found in gasoline are all very nonpolar, meaning electrons are equally shared in bonds in the molecule so there aren't any partial charges. Styrene includes lots of aromatic groups, and gasoline contains some aromatic compounds like toluene and xylene. A general rule is that "like dissolves like," and gasoline can indeed attack Styrofoam. Kerosene will do likewise. You wouldn't want to store gasoline in a Styrofoam cup anyway because it evaporates readily as it's quite volatile and is highly flammable

    Natural ones I didn't know about were

    Eucalyptol, which is found in eucalyptus, rosemary and bay oil, can dissolve Styrofoam; the oil cymene, which is found in thyme, can do the same.

  • 9 years ago

    It does NOT melt, it dissolves.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.