I'm removing large voltage regulators from circuit boards which are often coated with a generous amount of thermal grease. I've found that 70% isopropyl alcohol works great for softening this and removing it with some light scrubbing.
The problem I have is that, without a lot of additional effort and scrubbing, the surfaces will often retain a film from the grease. There are also areas which I may have missed or were unable to reach when scrubbing.
This type of grease is often electrically conductive and can cause a short circuit if accidentally brushed over the pins of a chip. It's also just plain annoying when it gets on your hands.
Is there an inexpensive solvent that I can use to dissolve the thermal paste without having to scrub the components? I felt that it would be more appropriate to ask this here on the chemistry stack exchange as I'm also interested in understanding how other solvents would work better for this.
I tried leaving the components in a bag of 70% isopropyl alcohol but this confirms that it only softens it. The thermal paste don't actually free itself from the surface without some mechanical force.
See here for a photo where the surface looks clean but you can see where I scraped my finger across it through the bag and it removed more of the grease.
The color of the component becomes a dull grey due to the grease becoming embedded in the pores of the plastic which is what it's supposed to do. I would like to know if there is a way to simply drop these into a chemical and have the grease dissolve away on its own without damaging the package.