Shining light on why plastics turn yellow

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.