Acetone and Styrofoam!

by Chikpeas Brother

13K2325

Intro: Acetone and Styrofoam!

Hi guys! I hope you enjoy this science experiment.

You need:
-Acetone
-Styrofoam
-A metal or glass container

Safety advisory:

Acetone fumes are flammable. Only do this in a well-ventialted area. Always wear safety glasses, and wash your hands well after handling acetone.

Have fun!

25 Comments

shawnleegabriel 1 year ago

You can pour the mixture in a mold and when the acetone evaporates you have a styrofoam object. Also the mixture is sticky, it can make some type of chauking or super glue like substance depending how thick the solution is.

rimar2000 10 years ago

Gasoline melts styrofoam, too.

Chikpeas Brother 10 years ago

True. I just went with acetone since it's more readily available.

rimar2000 10 years ago

WOW, here in Argentina it is on the contrary. Acetone is named "drug precursor" and then its market is controlled. You must declare the use you will make of it when buying.

By the way, the solution styrofoam-gasoline does not serve as adhesive. What is the case with styrofoam-acetone?

MagicTK 9 years ago

I used to make a mixture that was nice and gooey, and I could spread it on things to repair them. One great example was I used it to repair cracked speaker cones. It also worked on some of the speakers' surround, but typically had better result if it was a cloth mesh type surround rather than a foam type or a rubber type. After spreading it on a speaker cone crack, just let it dry, and it was quite stiff, but still light weight.

Later, I had a bunch of it mixed up and forgot about it. A week or so later, I remembered. All that was left was this amazingly hard semi-transparent circular block about 5/8" thick. I never had a reason to keep it, but I still have it.

I did notice that some types of foam didn't melt as well as others.

rimar2000 9 years ago

Thanks for the info, MagicTK

Chikpeas Brother 10 years ago

That's interesting. Here in the U.S., I got acetone from my local Walmart for 6 dollars over the counter. Why is it so hard to get in Argentina?

kymyst told me that a styrofoam-acetone soluion works as a cement for PVC. I'll have to try it sometime, because that actually sounds useful. :)

kminnie 10 years ago

And you have made napalm!

Chikpeas Brother 10 years ago

Effectively, yes. I believe napalm is made with gasoline though.

TrollFaceTheMan 10 years ago

Well technically speaking anything that is a gelled Incendiary... The first Naplam was Actually made up of Naphthenic Acid and Palmitate, hence it's name. But more commonly now napalm is made with petroluem products like Gasoline...

Good instructable BTW!

Chikpeas Brother 10 years ago

Oh, that makes sense. Do you know what mechanism a flamethrower emplys to propel it?

Thank you!

liquidhandwash 10 years ago

you should try biodiesel and styrofoam, it completely disappears.

Chikpeas Brother 10 years ago

Neat! Where can I get biodiesel? Is there a video showing the process?

Chikpeas Brother 10 years ago

The acetone evaporates and the styrofoam mixture can be burned away. No harm done. :)

offramp 10 years ago

I seem to recall reading, many years ago, about a doctor who did something similar with discarded pudding cups and either acetone or tolulene (can't remember which)... he used this mixture to cast prosthetic limbs and was using this method to bring prosthetics to third-world countries.

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