wireshark
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Proposal for making styrene monomer
Let's say polystyrene is put into a pressure cooker, the pressure cooker is heated maybe under a flame for a hour (or some experimentally determined
time), let the pot cool to room temp (in situ condensation), the pot is taken outside before opening (because of all the nasty gases), and the liquid
is removed and distilled to get styrene monomer. This way you don't have to abuse your glassware to make styrene.
I would just try this, but is it safe?
Okay, I overlooked something obvious. Pressure cookers have a little vent on top, so that obviously has to be plugged somehow. So I guess the real
question is how can I safely plug the pressure release thing on a pressure cooker? And I'm definitely not going to use fire as a heat source--that's
just reckless.
[Edited on 4-3-2013 by wireshark]
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killer_lapin
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styrene is carcinogenic so you don't want fumes to escape. A simple distillation setup with polystyene pieces can be use to produce the monomer. UC235
already made a good video on this, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tEs7P6UUVQ
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Erbium_Iodine_Carbon
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The vent on your pressure cooker MUST have a plug or seal already or else the thing wouldn't work... otherwise it's a valve designed to release gas if
the pressure gets dangerously high.
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wireshark
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Erbium, there is a vent on the top of the lid on mine that is supposed to release steam. Tried plugging it with screws and it didn't work. Not wanting
to weld anything, I've been thinking of taking an empty fire extinguisher, putting PS inside, heating it up to ~350 degrees with some
electric source of heat, letting it cool, collecting the liquid, and distilling off the styrene fraction. A fire extinguisher has a psi
indicator so I can stop it before it explodes.
killer, I know you can do this, but I want to avoid using glass as much as possible. Styrene monomer will polymerize easily so I want to avoid getting
plastic on my glass. I also would like some apparatus to do high temp/high pressure reactions like making benzene from benzoate.
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Erbium_Iodine_Carbon
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I just don't understand how a pressure cooker could possibly be open to the atmosphere and achieve any sort of pressure.
I did a quick search and it seems the vent is there in most cookers to release pressure when it's above that which the cooker was designed for.
With this in mind it seems unsafe to intentionally plug it.
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zed
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So, it hasn't occurred to you to put a distillation arm on the top of your pressure cooker?
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wireshark
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Quote: Originally posted by zed  | | So, it hasn't occurred to you to put a distillation arm on the top of your pressure cooker? |
I thought of that, but as I said, I don't want to do any welding. Might do that if I can't think of anything else.
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zed
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It hasn't occurred to you to bore a hole, tap it, and screw in a distillation arm constructed from standard copper plumbing hardware?
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