Pegs: stronger for longer

Scientists have designed a clothes peg that can withstand the sun for longer. (‘Nice to meet you. What do you do for a crust?’ ‘Oh, I study clothes pegs.’)

Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra have made tougher plastic by using sophisticated quantum chemistry and supercomputers. They modelled polymer degradation to make sure that the plastic was stronger. Forget world hunger and global warming; isn't it good to know we are harnessing the power of science for noble purposes like laundry?

The team investigated the theory that pegs and plastics deteriorated because of a slow, flameless combustion process called autoxidation. However, they found that this was not correct (oh, good, my pegs are not quietly burning to bits).

Instead, they found pegs were damaged because most polymer chains contain a small number of faulty structures, formed during their manufacture.

So, now, when my dog, Nellie, chews the clothes pegs I accidentally drop, I can collect up the broken bits she doesn’t ingest and put them in the bin, safe in the knowledge that they will sit, undegraded in landfill for aeons.

Image: Salvatore Vuono