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Review on Identification, Recycling and Degradation of Polystyrene
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This review systematically examines polystyrene identification methods, recycling strategies, and degradation processes, covering analytical techniques including FTIR, GC-MS, and DSC for material identification. The review highlights that polystyrene degrades extremely slowly (10-1000 years depending on type) and surveys commonly used recycling methods to address the persistence of this widely used plastic in the environment.
The main aim of this article is systematically to carry out comprehensive review on polystyrene, its identification, recycling and degradation. Polystyrene is a versatile plastic used to make wide variety of products. It is polymer of styrene and pentane which is blowing agent. Identification of polystyrene can be done through different methods like FTIR, GC-MS and DSC which gives satisfactory results. Various types of plastics have very slow degradation rate. It ranges from 10-1000 years depending on type of plastics. So there is need to recycle polystyrene. Commonly used recycling methods are chemical, mechanical and thermal recycling. These methods have their pros and cons. Recycled polystyrene has limited applications. So to control plastic pollution recycling and degradation of polystyrene both are important. Degradation of polystyrene with thermal, catalytic, supercritical solvent oxidation, photocatalytic and biodegradation are useful to convert it in less harmful component(s).
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.