Lubricant Transfer in Disk Drives

For disk drives with Z-tetraol-coated disks, the ingress of airborne solid particulates into the disk drive was found to result in disk-to-head lubricant transfer. In addition, high humidity was found to enhance the transfer process. Water soluble electrolytes such as alkali halides are most ubiquit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tribology letters 2012-12, Vol.48 (3), p.367-374
Main Authors: Kasai, Paul H., Raman, Vedantham
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alkali halides
Chemistry and Materials Science
Corrosion and Coatings
Disk drives
Disks
Droplets
Electrolytes
Encapsulation
Halides
Materials Science
Molecular dynamics
Nanotechnology
Original Paper
Particulates
Physical Chemistry
Surfaces and Interfaces
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Thin Films
Tribology
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Summary:For disk drives with Z-tetraol-coated disks, the ingress of airborne solid particulates into the disk drive was found to result in disk-to-head lubricant transfer. In addition, high humidity was found to enhance the transfer process. Water soluble electrolytes such as alkali halides are most ubiquitous airborne solid particulates. Molecular dynamics calculations were performed to examine (a) the condensation process of H 2 O, (b) the effect of alkali halide on the process, (c) the difference between the end-groups of Z-dol and Z-tetraol. It was shown that the OH units of Z-tetraol end-groups would embed themselves into facial layer of water–electrolyte droplets, thus encapsulating and stabilizing the droplets, while the OH units of Z-dol would not do so. The lubricant transfer observed uniquely for Z-tetraol-coated disks is attributed to inorganic particulates such as NaCl entering the drive interior, landing on the disk surface, attracting water, and forming Z-tetraol encapsulated water–electrolyte droplets. These droplets are viscous and are readily picked up by the slider.
ISSN:1023-8883
1573-2711
DOI:10.1007/s11249-012-0031-8