Polyethylene oxide is an extremely important polymer for many commercial applications.
Apart from being a nontoxic, eatable but nonnutritive and biodegradable polymer, it finds many uses in everyday household products. In particular it is used as an additive in various products such as hair sprays, gels and viscosity modifiers to induce the right product consistency. Thus, polyethylene oxide can be found in a number of high-end batteries, high strength elastomers, biodegradable polymeric systems, etc. Next time you pick up a household product, like a tube of styling gel, look for PEO in its ingredient list.