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What causes white plastic to turn yellow?

For one of the most commonly used plastics, polyethylene, it's long been suggested that ultraviolet (UV) light — the same light that gives us sunburns — initiates reactions in the backbone of the polymer's structure that cause the yellow color change.

acs.org - Shining light on why plastics turn yellow - American Chemical Society

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“Could Superficial Chiral Nanostructures Be the Reason Polyethylene Yellows as It Ages?”

ACS Applied Polymer Materials

If you own a retro gaming console or have an old roll of packing tape, you’ve seen how plastics turn yellow as they age. Though the cause of this color change has long been attributed to the formation of molecules that act as dyes — the actual chemical changes that take place remained unexplained. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Polymer Materials have identified surface-based chiral nanostructures as the potential culprit. Understanding how and why polymers degrade with age is key to designing alternatives that can avoid these pathways, allowing plastic products to have a longer lifespan. For one of the most commonly used plastics, polyethylene, it’s long been suggested that ultraviolet (UV) light — the same light that gives us sunburns — initiates reactions in the backbone of the polymer’s structure that cause the yellow color change. However, though chemical changes to polyethylene’s polymeric backbone have been observed after exposure to UV light, those new structures cannot account for polyethylene’s yellowing. One emerging way to intentionally modify the color and the ways that plastics interact with light is to create nano-sized “supramolecular” structures on their surfaces that impact plastics’ properties in a controllable way. Inspired by these surface-based technologies, Margaret M. Elmer-Dixon, Melissa A. Maurer-Jones and colleagues wanted to see if such nanostructures formed unintentionally by UV light could be the cause of polyethylene yellowing. The researchers first investigated if potential structures formed on yellowed polyethylene films’ surfaces interacted with circularly polarized light, a type of light whose waves travel with a right- or left-handed rotation. The amount of circularly polarized light absorbed by the film in these experiments changed depending on the film’s orientation, suggesting that the yellowed plastic contains new chemical structures that are chiral, that is, they are directional and aren’t identical to their mirror images. Additional experiments showed that most of the degradation during film yellowing occurred on the surface of the films. The team concluded that chiral chemical structures on the surfaces of the polyethylene films are formed during exposure to UV light and are a potential cause for the yellow color of old plastics. They say that these insights could help researchers design plastic products that last longer before becoming unsightly or unusable. The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, the University of Minnesota McKnight Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Does peroxide remove yellow plastic?

Hydrogen peroxide works well on plastics that have turned entirely yellow instead of in just one spot. Fill a plastic bag with enough hydrogen peroxide to cover the plastic. Stick the plastic in the bag of hydrogen peroxide and lay it out in direct sunlight. Wait 3-4 hours before rinsing it off with clean water.

wikihow.com - How to Remove Yellow Stains from Plastic: 11 Steps (with Pictures)

This article was co-authored by Susan Stocker . Susan Stocker runs and owns Susan’s Green Cleaning, the #1 Green Cleaning Company in Seattle. She is well known in the region for outstanding customer service protocols — winning the 2017 Better Business Torch Award for Ethics & Integrity —and her energetic support of green cleaning practices. This article has been viewed 221,083 times.

Article Summary

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To remove yellow stains from plastic, try scrubbing it with common household items, like lemon juice, salt, or baking soda. If you decide to use lemon juice, cut a lemon in half and rub it on the affected area. Once the stain is covered in juice, take the item outside and let it sit in the sun for a few hours before rinsing it. For baking soda, make a paste by mixing it with water, then apply it to the stains. Let the plastic sit for a few hours before using a sponge or towel to rub the paste into the stain. After you've scrubbed the stain, rinse the paste off with warm water. In order to clean your plastic with salt, rub it into the stain with a damp cloth until the discoloration begins to fade. To learn how to clean plastic by soaking it in vinegar, keep reading!

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