Overview of Polystyrene (PS) including background, history, advantages, limitations and typical applications.

Background: Polystyrene (PS) has been known for well over one hundred years but its real molecular nature was not clarified until about 1920 when the work of Staudinger elucidated the materials molecular structure in the very early days of polymer science. About 1930 I.G. Farben, in Germany, first produced polystyrene, while at the same time the Dow Chemical Company commenced their ultimately successful development of the material.