Procedure:
1. Add styrene, water, potassium persulfate and soap solution to the Erlenmeyer
flask and stir rapidly.
2. Heat the solution/suspension to above 50C to form free radicals from the
potassium persulfate. For about 90% conversion heat for 2 hours, heating for 30
minutes leads to a reasonable yield of polymer.
3. The micellar suspension has a milky appearance but when salt is added with rapid
stirring using a glass stirring rod (not the magnetic stir bar) the micelles
immediately breakup and a precipitate of polystyrene forms.
4. Water/monomer etc. can be decanted from the precipitate and the polystyrene
dried.
5. The product can also be dissolved in toluene and precipitated in propanol as was
done for the bulk polymerization