Un-Yellow Old Plastics – Retr0brite!

Science
Un-Yellow Old Plastics – Retr0brite!

Have you noticed how old plastics yellow in the sun? Well, now there is an easy way to restore the original color!

retr0bright-vic20.jpg

Retr0brite is an easy-to-make open-sourced gel that un-yellows the flame retardants found in ABS plastic. It started as a chance discovery that hydrogen peroxide partially helped banish the yellow… but then it was refined in to an easier-to-use and more powerful version by a variety of retro computer enthusiasts, chemists, and engineers.

retr0bright-one_hour.jpg

The recipe is a simple mix of hydrogen peroxide and oxi laundry booster, plus something to gel it so that it can stay attached to the plastic while it works. The actual bleaching process uses UV light (either a special light, or just leave it in sunlight) to activate the reaction, causing hydrogen to bond with bromine free radicals & undo the damage.

retr0bright-after_six_hours.jpg

The Science behind this.
Gallery of more examples.
(there seems to be some confusion on the spelling – it’s also known as Retr0bright)

[via waxy]

20 thoughts on “Un-Yellow Old Plastics – Retr0brite!

  1. Jack of Most Trades. says:

    I thought it was cigarette smoke that turned the plastic brown. About the time I quit smoking, I started getting keyboards, etc. in black plastic.

  2. Un-Yellow Old Plastics – Retr0brite! bekathwia says:

    Wow, cool! My old knitting machine has this problem. I think it was partially beige to begin with, but it’s definitely yellowed (it’s from the 80s). Thanks for this!

  3. Bob Sinclair says:

    I’ve thrown out working retro computers because they turned as yellow as a lemon. No amount of scrubbing with soap would undo this.

    If I had known this method, these machines would now be restored to their former glory!

  4. Sal says:

    By Gel, do you mean literally a gel, or do you mean just a container to mix it in?

  5. saint_al says:

    Commodore restoration! I bow.

  6. Tim says:

    This is relevant to my interests.

  7. John Maushammer says:

    @Sal – literal gel. Check out the recipe page, where they use either Xanthan Gum+Glycerine, or Arrow Root. They also think corn starch, guar gum or even wallpaper paste may work, but those are just ideas to try. The original formula didn’t use a gel, and, as a result, required much more h2o2 to submerge the part to be restored.

  8. Ligia says:

    This strikes me as the touch of brilliant madness, it calls for profound respect and at the same time commands the sheer mistery of taking these old computers and videogames ot of the placid flux of time, their quiet aging, to yank them right into the present, looking as befuddled as real time travellers would be, condemned to an era they do not belong to. Brilliant! Best of the year so far!

  9. malarkki says:

    My vintage Super Nintendo can sure use this. Part of the box used, i guess, the un-antiflammable plastic. As such, some of the box is the original grey and other parts the ugly yellow.

  10. Kris says:

    What about painted plastic (like the Commodore 64 logo strip at the top)? Does this fade the paint (since the hydrogen peroxide is essentially a bleach)? And if so, is there any other way to un-yellow plastic without stripping/bleaching the paint?

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK