Are polystyrene and thermocol same?

Thanks for the A2A. No, Styrofoam (a registered trademark of the Dow Chemical Co.), and Thermocol are NOT the same or equivalent. Styrofoam is restricted to extruded polystyrene foam board. The process produces a closed cell foam in a rigid sheet form. read more

Thermocol is an example of expanded polystyrene foam, typically denoted as EPS. It is fabricated/molded into various forms, including sheet, but is not extruded. That typically results in a foam that would not be closed cell, and has different insulating performance properties as a result. read more

The diastereomer where all of the phenyl groups are on the same side is called isotactic polystyrene, which is not produced commercially. Atactic polystyrene. The only commercially important form of polystyrene is atactic, in which the phenyl groups are randomly distributed on both sides of the polymer chain. read more