Isopropyl rubbing alcohol vs Propanol-1

[JizyahCollector]

Hello, hope you guys are doing well, I need to clean some electronic components (mainly an ESP32 module and removing old thermal paste from my i3-3110m processor in order to repaste it for some preventative maintenance), I don't have access to Isopropyl rubbing alcohol where I live but I did manage to find however some Propanol-1 that appears to be 99%, was wondering if I could use it for my aforementionned purposes and not damage my components, I read online that they are similar but I'm no chemistry expert so I am not sure yet. Some help would be hugely appreciated!

[JohanH]

I'm not a chemist either, but it looks like propanol-1 isn't used much for cleaning. It has some acidic characteristics that sounds like not a good thing. It's also more harmful than isopropyl that is more commonly used. So don't get it in your eyes. But for cleaning thermal paste from a metal surface you can use almost anything. I.e. rubbing with a moist paper towel and it doesn't matter if it isn't completely clean. If it's a thermal adhesive tape I suggest mechanical cleaning first e.g. with a knife or spatula.

[tooki]

I think I’ve seen flux removers that use propan-1-ol as an ingredient (alongside isopropyl and other stuff), so it’s probably safe.

[JizyahCollector]

Will it be fine with the conformal coating on PCBs?

[jpanhalt]

1-Propanol and ethanol are primary alcohols and are more acidic (as proton donors) than 2-propanol (isopropyl alcohol).  The reason is that methyl groups are viewed as electron donors, and the carbon to which the OH group in 2-propanol is attached has two; whereas, in ethanol and 1-propanol, a single methyl or methylene (-CH2-) group is attached to that carbon.  Loss of a proton from an alcohol leaves a negative charge on the oxygen.  Electron donors make that less stabilized (i.e., less favored) compared to the weaker effect of a single methyl or methylene group.  Ethanol is used safely to remove soldering flux.

Think of it this way, none of those 3 alcohols is more acidic than water, and PCB's get washed in water all the time.

1-propanol will evaporate a little more slowly than 2-propanol, and I don't like its smell as much.  There may also be a slight difference  in solvent power for flux reside, but probably not anything you will notice. 

EDIT: It will be fine with solder resist and probably no worse than 2-propanol for any conformal coating.  There are different types of conformal coatings.