There are two primary factors limiting the commercial success of photochromic (PC) plastics, the relatively short lifetime of the finished products and their high cost. We attempted to produce a PC masterbatch with superior stability so that: lifetime is significantly increased at equivalent PC dye concentrations when compared to competitors' products. dye concentration can be reduced (lower cost) and residual color can also be reduced (performance enhancement) at comparable lifetimes with competitors' products. In order to achieve superior stabilization, we followed an Edisonian (trial and error) and statistical approach. Lifetimes have been extended over twenty times when compared to unstabilized plastics following this approach.
