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