This is going to be a fairly short post, so here it is
Normally, a plastics chromophores are tuned to the color that we see prior to yellowing. As the plastic goes through photodegradation, new pi-bonds are created, and a bathochromic shift occurs where more pi-bonds are created. As Retro-Brite is applied, the free radicals that are produced as the oxidant decomposes, reacts with these bonds. The pi-bonds are broken and the chromophores return back to it’s original state (or close to it).
That's it? Yep. The reason why it is fairly "hand wavy" is the because each plastic is unique, each plastic has unique additives (bromine fire retardants for example), degradation processes are unique, and there are a million combinations that need to be looked at on an individual bases. I hope to do that for some specific cases such as for Amiga's, showers, or certain types of plastic. However, for now that's the general framework to understand the fate of radicals within plastic!
We do have one additional post to understand Retro-Brite in comparison to bleaching. You can read it here!
If you have questions, comments, or feedback on this post or any others, please email us at support@www.retro-brite.com. We'd love to hear from you!
Part 1: How Retro-Brite Works: Into/Summary
Part 2: How Retro-Brite Works: Understanding Oxidation Potential
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