Turning styrofoam into cinnamon candy

Summary by Krater

The creator attempts to synthesize cinnamaldehyde from styrofoam cups, breaking polystyrene down into styrene, reacting it with DMF and phosphorus oxychloride via the Vilsmeier-Haack reaction, and finally shaping the resulting cinnamon oil into cinnamon candy hearts using custom candy rollers.

From the video

Answers: How do you make cinnamaldehyde from styrofoam?

• polystyrene depolymerization
• styrene recovery from styrofoam
• Vilsmeier-Haack reaction
• cinnamaldehyde synthesis
• candy making

Ingredients

• acetone
• polystyrene cups
• 65 g magnesium oxide
• sodium sulfate
• 70 ml N, N-Dimethylformamide
• 37 g phosphorus oxychloride
• diethyl ether
• 340 ml water
• 133.5 g anhydrous sodium acetate
• 2 cups table sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• red dye

What it concludes

• Solid bases like magnesium oxide act as effective catalysts for the chemical recycling of polystyrene waste into styrene.
• Styrofoam cups can be successfully depolymerized and converted into pure cinnamaldehyde.
• Cinnamaldehyde produced from chemical synthesis can be used to flavor homemade candy hearts.