Can you retrobright a yellowed with only hydrogren peroxide? I’d really like to do retrobrighting with less chemicals.
Well, the answer to that question is quite interesting. It turns out that you can retrobright with no chemicals at all, just bright sunlight and exposure to the oxygen from open air. This is a much gentler process than the chemical-based ones.
20200815/DuckDuckGo hydrogen peroxide retrobrite
20200815/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright
20200815/https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Retrobright-Whitening-solution/
20200815/http://retr0bright.com/
20200815/DuckDuckGo retrobright only hydrogen peroxide
https://dfarq.homeip.net/retrobright-with-sunlight-and-no-chemicals/
That being said, it still leaves me with a lot of questions. I have some white plastic items that are covered by cardboard or stored in boxes outside of the sunlight, but they are still in hot places. Over the years, they have curiously become yellow. Is there possibly an anti-retrobrightening process going on? Retrobrighting can be done with exposure to only infrared light, so its possible the infrared light as radiated heat is doing something chemical that has an undesirable effect in the absence of oxygen, which would come from open air exposure.
Another note, the “active oxygen” part, i.e. Oxyclean, is only added in a small quantity. Purportedly if you used a thin layer of hydrogen peroxide or some other method to ensure access to oxygen, this would also work well?