Acetone and Styrofoam

Title of Experiment: Acetone and Styrofoam

How I got the idea for this experiment: I saw this experiment done before so I thought why don’t I do this experiment for the science fair? That way I could learn as much as I could about it.
Question or Problem: I wanted to find out why acetone dissolved Styrofoam.
Prediction or Hypotheses: I thought that it was because acetone has some sort of chemicals that would dissolve Styrofoam. I thought maybe acetone had an acid make-up.
Materials used: Acetone, Styrofoam head, glass bowl
Steps taken: I put the Styrofoam head in a bowl. Then I took some acetone and poured it all over the Styrofoam head.
What happened/observations: The Styrofoam head dissolved and turned into goo sort of like really wet mud.
What did I learn: I learned that they put gases into the Styrofoam that makes it all puff up. The acetone just releases the gases and turns the Styrofoam back into a plastic material. Once all the acetone is released the Styrofoam turns into a hard plastic again.


By Tanner Martin