Voltaire Dupo PHYSC: Electricity and Magnetism

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Learning’s for Capacitors and Dielectric

In this module I have relearned the mechanics of capacitor charging and the
significant role played by the Electric Force on the amount of voltage present
on the capacitor plates.

Capacitance is the Amount of Charge on the Plates divided by the amount of

electric potential in they system.

C = Q / V

Capacitance can also be quantified as a product of the developed electric field

multiplied by the Area of the plates and divided by the distance between the
plates.

C = Eq / (Qq/d)
C = (Qqq / dd) / (Qq /d)
C = q A/d
C = kE(A/d)

Hence a larger plate area or a smaller distance between plates creates a larger
capacitance. Now the problem is Capacitance is also influenced by the kind of
dielectric that exists between the plates. The larger the dielectric constant
(k) the larger the capacitance will be. There are limits to the amount of charge
the dielectric can prevent from transferring from one plate to another.
Instances where charge particles have passed thru the dielectric are known as
dielectric breakdown and causes the plates to loose their potential difference.

Inserting a dielectric between two charge plates may cause the lessening of the
stored voltage but increases the capacitance of the unit.

V/Vo=Eo/E

hence V = Vo (Eo/E) makes V<Vo

Co = Qo / Vo

C = Qo / V if V is lower and Qo doesn't change then C > Co.

Capacitors are generally operated only up to 50% of the rated maximum voltages
as a safety margin. I noticed that this safety factor is not followed in most
the selection of electronic components used consumer and medical electronics. In
one defibrillator I worked on its capacitance was 54uF and was rated to operate
at around 4.2kV. The whole thing will typically store around 370J of energy so
if we add up the numbers we can end up with 3,701v being stored on the capacitor
this would be around 88% of the total capacity would be used.

One of the new things I learned in this module is that if I used one capacitor
to charge another capacitor is that I would end up with a smaller voltage on the
other capacitor.

V1 = Vo(C1) / C1 + C2
Voltaire Dupo PHYSC: Electricity and Magnetism
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Prior to reading the module I assumed that if I did this I would get the same
amount of voltage. Probably this is the main reason why we tend to separate the
capacitors on voltage multipliers with diodes.

With regards to capacitors connected in series and parallel. Before I read the
module the I thought that the main reason why they where added when connected in
parallel was due to the greater area made by the connected plates and that the
capacitors in series tend to get smaller in value due to their larger distance
between the plates connected to the positive end and the plates on the negative
end. After I read the module I learned that the main element in the determining
the value of capacitors in series was the total charge in the circuit that the
charge in one capacitor equals the others and for parallel connected capacitors
it was still the charge that played the vital role but this time the total
charge was a function of the individual charges stored on the capacitors.

Electrolytic Capacitor Question

What happens when I connect an electrolytic capacitor in the incorrect polarity?

The capacitor will experience dielectric breakdown and its inner liquid content
will start to boil and blow its casing up or open its top portion for safety
capacitors.

Electrolytic capacitors operate by allowing the development of a thin lining of

aluminum oxide on its negative terminal when its leads are miss connected its
zinc sulfate lining disappears and the dielectric breakdown voltage is no longer
stored on its plates. When breakdown of the dielectric occurs on an electrolytic
capacitor the internal oil stored inside the capacitor experiences current flow
and it starts to heat up and boil causing pressure to build up and the whole
casing to shoot off the base and lead (terminal assemblies).

Non - polarized capacitors don't have this thin film of aluminum to provide
dielectric separation so it has no negative and positive terminals.

Leyden Jar

The Leyden Jar is a primitive capacitor that can store a substantial amount of
charge. Its positive terminal is its outer enveloped plate this was placed on
its sides and the negative terminal is its internal metal plate. The negative
metal plate had a external conductor that goes the the negative battery
terminal. The positive metal plate also has an external conductor that is
connected to the battery positive terminal. The dielectric of the leyden jar
glass. The leyden jar was initially used to store charge and serve as batteries
in the absence of a voltaicpile these can be charged using electrostatic
generators. The stored electric charges can be used for later experiments.

Capacitor charging involves the application of a potential difference between

its plates and this strips the electrons on the positive terminal and strips the
positive charges from the plate connected to the negative terminal. The plates
only start to get stripped of their charges only when there is a potential
difference between the plates this is due to the presence of the electric field
from the positive terminal going to the negative terminal. When the applied
potential difference is removed the charge imbalance on the plates are
maintained by the developed electric field inside the capacitor. This may be the
reason why in the simulation the charging only takes place when the electrons
manage to enter the negative capacitor plate.
Voltaire Dupo PHYSC: Electricity and Magnetism
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Uses of Capacitors

Capacitors are used for a lot of different applications among them are the
following:

1. Smoothing Capacitor for AC to DC Converters

2. Tuning circuits for the Radio Sets
3. Storage Bank for Energy developed in a Medical Defibrilator
4. Kick starting AC Motors
5. Filter circuits for Audio Circuits
6. Cheap amplifier and DC load separation
7. Filter circuits for AC Line Transients
8. Sensors such as pressure sensors
9. Voltage Multipliers that are commonly used to operate old television Cathode
Ray Tubes.

2200 uF Capacitor Problem

When I charged the 2200 uF Capacitor with the 9v battery I wasn’t expecting a
spark to occur when I shorted its leads. But a spark did occur when I shorted
its terminals. I now began to think what could produce a spark it could be
current a huge amount of current passing thru the leads. In a capacitor current
comes from the amount of charges passing thru the leads these charges are stored
on the plates of the capacitor. So I decided to compute the capacitor charge
using a 9v battery as a voltage source.

C = Q/V
CV = Q

Q = C V
Q = 2200 uF (9v)
Q = 0.0198 Coloumbs

The charge contained in the 2200uF capacitor is a large amount electric charge
and having this amount of charge move abruptly into the leads may cause a spark
and chipping off of metal when the electrons enter the metal leads.