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Twiggy archiving---how to deal with disk media oxidation?

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Al Kossow:
Never use IPA on floppy media. The only thing I would suggest using is Cyclomethicone

stepleton:
Thanks, Al. I'm starting to research magnetic media cleaning now, although much of what's out there has to do with magnetic tapes. Do you know of any recommendations for how cyclomethicone ought to be used, or any other kinds of advice based on your own experiences?

Al Kossow:
If you aren't going to open the jacket up, I just apply a little to the surfaces, rotate, and apply a little more.
It is slippery and spreads pretty quickly, which is why you don't want to use a lot.
It also will evaporate slowly unlike alcohol.

Experiment on some 5" PC disks you don't care about.

stepleton:
Thanks for the info. Now, apologies for being a bit obtuse here, but I should have asked earlier---what does this stuff do?

If we're adding and rotating, is it mainly a lubricant? Those old disks can be difficult to turn. Or does it clean by helping the jacket absorb or wipe additional oxide muck off of the surface of the disk? Or both...

Some guides for cleaning VHS tapes suggest wiping with a microfibre cloth. I suppose we would do the same here. Experimenting with a throwaway 5.25" disk seems wise.

Meanwhile, other recommendations for tape conditioning equipment and supplies are interesting or of their time. This NIST document describes machines with blades that scrape against the tape surface (like a zamboni) or fun solvents like freon or xylene. I'll take this other stuff.

stepleton:
I will dump some further findings here, without intending to challenge any advice offered so far. I suspect that lots of people turn to common household alcohols in part because they are often on hand. I have seen cyclomethicone advised for tapes before, but it's probably not something that a lot of people have around the house. Anyway, on to the search results:

Here is how the University of Michigan Library did it for mould (70/30 ethanol/distilled water solution):

https://www.lib.umich.edu/blogs/bits-and-pieces/mold-weird-part-1
https://www.lib.umich.edu/blogs/bits-and-pieces/mold-weird-part-2

Incidentally, I'm inclined to wonder whether what's wrong with the disks I've got now is mould rather than some other degradation of the material. The disks themselves do smell rather musty. I'm not sure I have access to the same fume hood facilities that they do at Michigan, in any case. I haven't seen other people take such precautions.

Here's someone who will sell you a 3D-printed bracket for holding your disk in place while you scrub it with IPA: https://www.floppycleaner.co.uk/
A lot of people seem to like IPA. Fewer people like soapy water.

They like diluted IPA over at the Rand Corporation, for example: https://osf.io/yvdrh/
The Kryoflux folks seem to recommend a 40% mixture themselves: http://www.kryoflux.com/download/kf_525modded_manual.pdf

And that's all I have time for this evening...

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