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3. (a) Polystyrene is a plastic with a wide range of uses. It has the following structure
Chemistry HKCEE Past Paper Plastics and DetergentsP.2/7
(ii) Suggest why polystyrene does NOT have a constant relative molecular mass. (2 marks)
(b) Polystyrene can be prepared from styrene using the set-up shown below:
4. Vegetable oils are esters formed from carboxylic acids with long carbon chains. Although
vegetable oils have high calorific values comparable to diesel, they are not used directly as fuel in
cars. One of the reasons is due to their high viscosity. By heating with methanol in the presence
of sodium hydroxide solution, vegetable oils can be converted to less viscous esters, methyl
carboxylates. These methyl carboxylates can be used to substitute diesel as fuel in cars.
The equation below show, the conversion of vegetable oil X to methyl carboxylate Y and alcohol
Z:
Chemistry HKCEE Past Paper Plastics and DetergentsP.3/7