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Green Tea Cleans Hard Drive Heads

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the heloise's-pc-found-to-be-spotless dept.

mprindle writes "Wired.com has an article announcing that a 'study of the use of green tea extracts for polishing the magnetic heads in hard-disk drives has yielded a compound that works three to four times faster than conventional compounds. If the findings can be reproduced in an industrial setting, the compound could reduce the cost and environmental impact of hard-drive manufacturing.' And you just thought that green tea was good to drink."

8 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Bio-active materials LESS polluting? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Considering that bio-active materials like green tea (yum!) decay and eventually become unusable and must be disposed of properly, doesn't it make more sense to stick with chemicals which, though bad for the environment, do not decay or degrade and can be used in a specific task indefinitely?

    Add to this the fact that landfills are full of "biodegradable" waste which because of the lack of oxygen in the area are unable to break down. It makes far more sense to go with a material which can be reused and/or recycled. Bio-degradable sometimes ain't.

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    1. Re:Bio-active materials LESS polluting? by THotze · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The problem is that the chemicals involved in any chemical reaction aren't infinately reusable. As one of the posters above noted, green tea works because it's an anti-oxidant, meaning it removes oxygen (oxides) from the hard drives. The industrial chemicals would also undergo reaction, and after so many uses, become unusable (assuming that 'so many uses' doens't mean once). While it's true that some industrial chemicals can undergo a reverse reaction relaviely easily, and therefore be 'regenerated' and reused, many cannot, and many that can are so cheap that they're disposed of anyways.

      While it's true that bio-degradABLE doesn't mean that they're bio-degradED, it does open the door. Also, its probably more environmentally friendly to PRODUCE green tea than it is for other industrial chemicals, which may produce waste products that end up in the water supply, require high temperatures and therefore require lots of energy, etc.

      So yeah, you're right that there is NEVER a magic-bullet. But if green tea is easier to produce, easier to refine, and can be broken down with a little simple composting, etc., then its a step in the right direction.

      Tim

    2. Re:Bio-active materials LESS polluting? by kencurry · · Score: 3, Interesting

      green tea works because it's an anti-oxidant, meaning it removes oxygen (oxides) from the hard drives.

      not to be pedantic, but this is not oxidation. As the original article states, the tannins bind to the tiny ceramic particles that that are unwanted on the surface. Thereby solubilizing them, allowing them to be rinsed free.

      What the article doesn't state but could have environmental impact is the ability to avoid organic solvents vs. being able to process with water. Since tannins are (mostly) water soluble, this would be another plus for this process.

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  2. Re:Green Tea by MoonBuggy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lies!
    Go to China, sit in a cafe in a bamboo forest next to a stream and have a glass of green tea. The tranquility of that is something I'm sure I'll remember for some time :-)

  3. antistrontidant? by Gropo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I visited the U.S.S.R. in 1988 our assigned 'tour propagandist' in Samarkand, Uzbekistan informed us that the green tea was drunk in part to prevent strontium-90 poisoning. gg Communist science bureau!

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    1. Re:antistrontidant? by TildaBang · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is true. If overbrewed, the tea tannins will attatch to the strontium-90, and pass through your system, instead of it being depositied into your bones because of the likeness to calcium.

  4. Stephenson says... by cei · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In his interview at Salon a couple weeks ago, Neal Stephenson wrote, "Every culture can be kind of defined by what they drink in order to avoid dying of diarrhea. In China it's tea. In Africa it's milk or animal blood. In Europe it was wine and beer."

    I didn't realize the same would apply to hard drive cleaning...

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  5. The cleaning power of tea by DrDNA · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In Chinese restaurants, waiters pour a bit of the leftover tea onto the table to clean it. They say it works much better than plain water. Ho gon-jeng! (very clean)