2 ms·

It's water. Or, if you want to be pedantic, a mixture of water and glycol as a fungicide and antibacterial agent.

• tenpies 4y ago
  It's the extra things in the water that make it both awesome and terrible. The really funny part - since we're approaching it all from an environmental perspective - is that it has huge global warming potential, so you want to be really careful to keep the stuff contained. They also take forever to break down and are not fantastic for human health. Like Sowell said "there are no solutions, there are only trade-offs". See: https://www.engineeredfluids.com/post/are-pfas-the-next-pcbs https://www.engineeredfluids.com/post/are-pfas-the-next-pcbs
  • jabl 4y ago
    Er, glycol isn't a flourocarbon.
• tristor 4y ago
  I want to be pedantic and point out that water as a substance is not the same thing as water as an ingredient in another substance. It is not water, it is something else which contains water. “Water” cooling is most often literally distilled water or possibly distilled water with a fungicide. This is not what is used in datacenters. They use Fluorinated fluids, PAOs, or PFOAs which all have unique properties different from treated waters.
  • jabl 4y ago
    > I want to be pedantic and point out that water as a substance is not the same thing as water as an ingredient in another substance. It is not water, it is something else which contains water. It's possible to take that pedantry a step too far. Is seawater not water because it contains a lot of salt, other minerals, fish poo, and whatnot? > “Water” cooling is most often literally distilled water or possibly distilled water with a fungicide. This is not what is used in datacenters. I've worked with datacenter equipment cooled by (AFAIK non-distilled) water-glycol, so, well, it does exist and is used.