yellowed murky plastic

[Tony Duell]

> I don't think anything short of molten sodium or fluorine gas bothers
> PTFE.  

I think the other alkali metals, if molten, attack ptfe. I am not sure 
about lithium, but I'd not risk it...

> 
> There are other surprises.  Ethanol (plain old alcohol) is a rather
> mild solvent that bothers very few things.  But it wrecks plexiglas
> (lucite).  

I remember the data sheet for an HP 'intellegent display' -- an LED 
'starburst' 4-character device with built-in scanning logic, character 
generator, etc. It warned that although the package would not be damaged 
by many solbents, alcohol (I can't remember if it was all alcohols or 
just ethanol) would ruin it. I've been told some optical plastics are 
wrecked by ethanol too.

-tony
k