Dealing with Static on LP palyback

@cliffaudio I was looking at the fan you mentioned.  I was wondering how noisy it is and if I need to have it run while playing the record.  We have similar ones at work, and they run full-time when someone is working on static sensitive stuff.  It does strike me as a bit overkill, though.  And, if I get a dust cover installed, then it is out of the picture.

Lewm, off subject, did you notice that I provided the link to the Stereophile article on the sound differences for various stylus and cantilever configurations?

@spatialking 

The fan does make some noise, but not as bad as a vacuum machine, besides you only turn it on for about 20 seconds and blow on both sides of the record only before each play of the record.  Get the one with the on off button it the back of the unit.  

@faustuss 

Also, there might be foreign matter adhered at the very surface which can be delt with permanently using a keen eye and a fingernail

Any recommendations for a salon that can do a micro-line fingernail profile?

@antinn 

As far as why the PVC and diamond pair in rubbing does not produce static is likely caused by the diamond on the triboelectric scale being close to PVC, meaning it attracts electrons to yield a negative charge the same as PVC, and that is implied in this article:  (PDF) Durable and High‐Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on an Inorganic Triboelectric Pair of Diamond‐Like‐Carbon and Glass.  

Hi Neil, good to see you here!

That's a tough read early on a Sunday morning!  

The article mainly discusses diamond-like-carbon on glass, mainly compared with copper on Teflon, in order to maximise (not minimise!!!!!!) the amount of electricity that can be produced, for use as a power source.  It briefly mentions other materials: PMMA, nylon, PE, PTFE, PI, and PVDF. 

Rather than speculate what the article implies about diamond versus PVC, I asked my friend Mr. ChatGPT and here is what his deep dive says:

In the triboelectric series, diamond is more positive (loses electrons) than Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), which is a strongly negative-charging material. When rubbed together, electrons will transfer from the diamond to the PVC, making the diamond positively charged and the PVC negatively charged. 

Material Comparison

Material	Relative Position	Charge Tendency when paired with PVC
Diamond	Generally positive/neutral depending on surface termination	Becomes positively charged by losing electrons
PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride)	Strongly negative	Becomes negatively charged by gaining electrons

We can bang on about whether diamond-like-carbon behaves like real diamond, and the other strange properties of carbon (like diamond is a good insulator, while graphite is a good conductor and graphene is probably the best conductor known to man), but can we please accept that diamond and vinyl are far apart in the triboelectric series as a scientific fact.

I try to emphasise the strength of electromagnetic forces compared to gravity, not to confuse @lewm, but because the magnitude of the force is so far from our lived experience.  At our scale, gravity is the dominant force we experience.  Most likely, when we think of dust, it is a gently snow that can be easily flicked from surfaces with a feather duster.

If you stay in this mindset, it is easy to believe that a stylus will simply bulldoze dust out of the groove.

Now change that mindset.  Multiply the forces you are used to by a million, million, million, million, million, million times.  Which will come off best - the stylus or the elecrostatically stuck-on dust mote?

PS: I know there is no hard-and-fast, universally agreed, triboelectric series (in contrast to the periodic table which since the discovery of the proton, is hard-and-fast) but the trends are clear.  Triboelectricity generation is not fully understood - even the shape and polish of the surface is sometimes important.