citric acid attacks styrofoam?

[Soundguy]

I know petro chemicals can make short work out of styrofoam.. however.. I was taking my work trash out yesterday and noticed all my styrofoam 'take home' cups from lunch were eroded where my lemon or lime sat in them ( from iced tea.. not soda.. ).. some of them almost clean thru the cup.

Anyone else notice this?

Soundguy

 

[Brant]

I suspect it is not the citric acid, but the natural limonene or "orange oil." This is often sold as a safety solvent and will attack styrofoam.

 

[jdbower]

If the females in your house (or you, I won't judge you) threw out some nail polish remover that used to be primarily acetone which eats through Styrofoam in an impressive manner.

 

[Podunkadunk]

I don't know if it's the citric acid or the other stuff another poster mentioned, but squeeze an orange peel onto a lit cigarette lighter...the juice that comes out of the peel is flammable. I would think a lemon, lime, grapefruit peel would do it too.

If it's flammable, I don't see why it wouldn't eat through a styrofoam cup.

Podunk

 

[coffeeman]

I suspect it is not the citric acid, but the natural limonene or "orange oil." This is often sold as a safety solvent and will attack styrofoam.

Citric acid is also good to delime water equipment. A solution in heater for coffee machine or hot side of a water cooler will take the lime away in a few hours and is safe to use. In the old days (now called "back in the day") we used muratic acid. Lots of problems with that stuff.

Cheers..