It all started in 1839 when Eduard Simon, a pharmacist in Berlin, Germany, discovered polystyrene by accident. Simon tried to distil a natural resin called storax. During distillation, he obtained an oily substance that he named “styrol”. Several days later, he found out that the sample had thickened, presumably due to oxidation. Simon didn’t know he had discovered polystyrene.
The German chemist Hermann Staudinger was the first to recognise in 1920 that polystyrene is made up of many styrene molecules joined together in a chain. Building on Staudinger's observations, in 1929 the scientists at the chemical company BASF developed a way to commercially manufacture polystyrene. A year later the era of large-scale production started. The Dow Chemical Company introduced STYRONTM polystyrene resins in 1938.
Today, polystyrene is used in making many products, whenever colourful and cheap plastic is needed. Solid polystyrene comes in many shapes and forms, from plastic cutlery to CD "jewel" cases. Polystyrene became really popular from 1951, with the invention of polystyrene foam, called Styropore® by BASF. Polystyrene foam is used for insulation, packaging, and food containers such as cups, egg cartons, disposable plates and trays.
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