I recall someone saying they incinerate the transistors which contain the grease, and the pressure which builds up inside them pops the caps open. Even if they’re still attached, a gap would at least make them easier to peel apart, so would kill two birds with one stone. It sounds plausible I guess but you’d have to try it to see if it works and how well? As far as chemical treatment some silicon compounds are attacked by Lye. If you have some uncapped you might try boiling them in hot Lye (sodium hydroxide) solution, like you’d do for removing solder mask from boards. Be very cautious! Besides being extremely caustic Lye also attacks aluminum and even glass containers, so you should heat it in stainless steel pan. I’ve also heard just boiling them with hot water suggested. IF the grease liquefies and floats to the surface it would be one method of separating most of it, but then it would still require incineration to remove any remaining coating before processing.
Yeah, popping them is commonly done, but you need to be prepared for relatively vigorous "explosions" - so use good and thick walled steel container with heavy lid, loosely covering the contents of the pot - not to create closed system. And of course, you need to do it somewhere far away from people - otherwise you can catch some unwanted "attention"
Also, be prepared that upon explosion, the superheated grease could catch fire. And burning silicone gives off fuming silica dust, which is very very bad to inhale (cause silicosis very quickly). And when this is some regular grease, be prepared for eventual PCBs in the air - as they burn very poorly (intended use as fire retardants) and mostly came out as unbearable nasty smoke
Very bad for health. And if they also eventually catch fire, all chlorinated compounds give off HCL during burning process, so be prepared for HCL mist crawling out of the steel container, that will become significantly rusty after the procedure
Boiling them in hydroxide is doable, and mostly I much more like the idea of liquifying the grease and let it float to the surface of the liquid. This technique is superior, whenever it is possible to use it
Here, some folks proceed with "popping" method when processing the silver or iron-silver tantalum capacitors. This is somewhat less corrosive and nasty, as acid present inside is sulfuric acid, but all in all, sulfuric mist is always produced during the process. But the bad thing is that explosions of these are powerful and loud - like shooting from shotgun
I personally cannot do this - I do not have any place where I can deliberaty "shoot" them open
People here aren´t used for hearing any noise that resembles shooting - so 100% assured, some police patrol will came to handcuff me for alleged shooting in public
and when they find out no guns are present, they start asking question about what the heck I am doing...
Alternatively, you can etch the top hats off with straight HCL and heating. This will not cut the consumption of acids, but you will kill two birds with one stone - remove the hats and also liquify the grease which will float to the top
Proceed with great caution. Be safe.
