Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Electrostatic Potential And

Capacitance
(Part-2)
Notes

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Introduction to Conductors
A conductor is an object or type of material that allow the flow of electrical
current in one or more directions. A metal wire is a common electrical
conductor.
• Conductors contain mobile charge carriers in the form of electrons.
• The valence electrons facilitate the flow of current in a conductor.
• Examples of conducting materials are Human body, Metallic objects, water
etc.

Electrostatics of Conductors
Conductors have loosely bound electrons to allow current to flow. In an
external electric field, they drift against the direction of the field. The
electrostatic field at different points in a conductor is given below.
1. Inside Conductor
o The electrostatic field inside the conductor is zero.
o Under no external electric field or static condition, the charge carriers
are distributed evenly and there is no electric field inside.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

2. At the surface of a charged conductor

o The electrostatic field at the surface of a charged conductor is normal
to the surface at every point.
o For a non-normal Electric field, there is a non-zero component along the
normal. Therefore, Electric field should have no tangential component
in static.

3. Interior of a conductor
o There is no electrostatic field in the interior of the conductor. All the
excess charge resides at the surface.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

o Under static conditions, the excess charge resides at the surface of the
conductor. On a closed surface, the electrostatic field is zero. So from
gauss’s law, there is no net charge enclosed by the surface.
4. Throughout the Volume of the conductor
o The Electrostatic potential is constant throughout the volume of the
conductor and is equal to its value on surface.
o Since, conductor has no tangential component; no work is done in
moving charge within conductor and on its surface. Hence the potential
is constant.

Electrostatic Shielding
Electric field inside a cavity in a conductor is always zero. Even if the conductor
is charged or charges are induced on a neutral conductor by an external field,
all charges reside only on the outer surface of the conductor. Hence, the any
cavity of any shape and size is always shielded from outer electric influence.
This is called electrostatic shielding.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Dielectrics
Dielectrics are non-conducting substances having negligible number of charge
carriers. In presence of an external electric field, dipole moments are induced
in dielectrics by stretching and re-orienting the molecules of the dielectric. The
collective dipole moment is the net charge on the surface of dielectric which
opposes and reduces (does not cancel) the external field.

Some of the dielectric materials are:

• Porcelain (ceramic), mica, glass, plastics, and the oxides of various metals.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

• Some liquids and gases

• Dry air
• Distilled water
• Vacuum

Polar and Non-Polar Molecules

When multiple atoms are bonded to each other, a molecule is formed. These
bonds or electron sharing arrangement can be polar (when electrons are
shared unequally) and non-polar (when electrons are shared equally).
• Various substances may have polar and non-polar molecules depending
upon the charge configuration inside them.
• A substance can be polarized from an external electric field which leads to
development of induced dipole moment inside them.

Criteria Polar Non-Polar

Centers of positive The centers are separated The centers coincide
and negative even in the absence of
charges external electric field
Dipole Moment Permanent dipole No permanent dipole
moment moment

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Examples Hydro Chloric Acid (HCl) Oxygen(O2) and

and Water (H2O) Hydrogen(H2)
Dielectrics in The individual dipole Positive and negative
External Electric moments tend to align charges get displaced.
Field with the field. They They develop an induced
develop a net dipole dipole moment as a
moment in the direction restoring force against
of the field. the direction of electric
field.

Polarization of dielectrics
A dielectric develops a net dipole moment in the presence of an external field.
The dipole moment per unit volume is called polarization and is denoted by P.
For linear isotropic dielectrics (substances where induced dipole moment is in
the direction of the field and is proportional to the field strength),
P = χe E
χe – electric susceptibility of the dielectric medium

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Capacitors and Capacitance

A capacitor is a system of two conductors separated by an insulator.
• The total charge of a capacitor is zero while the conductors have charge Q
and –Q.
• A single conductor can be considered as capacitor with other conductor at
infinity.
• Electric field in the region between the conductors is proportional to the
charge Q.
• Capacitance is denoted by, C = Q/V. It depends on:
o Geometrical configuration (shape, size, separation) of the system of
two conductors.
o Nature of insulator/dielectric separating

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

• Charge on the capacitor leaks away due to reduction in the insulating

power of the intervening medium. This happens due to higher potential
difference causing strong electric fields.
• Maximum electric field which a dielectric medium can withstand without
breakdown and prevent leaking of charge is called dielectric strength. Air
dielectric strength is 3 x 106 Vm-1.
• SI unit of capacitance is F (Farad).

Parallel Plate Capacitor

A parallel plate capacitor is a capacitor with 2 large plane parallel conducting
plates separated by a small distance.
• Electric field inside the capacitor has a direction from positive to negative
plate.
• For very small ‘d’, the electric field is considered as uniform. For large ‘d’,
the electric field is non-uniform and it bends around the corners of the
plate which is called fringing of the field.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Effect of dielectric on Capacitance

When a dielectric is present between the plates of a parallel plate capacitor
fully occupying the region, the dielectric is polarized by the electric field. The
surface charge densities are considered as σp and - σp.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Dielectric constant of a substance is the factor by which the capacitance

increases from its vacuum value, when the dielectric is fully inserted in
between the plates of the capacitor.

Combination of Capacitors - Series

Capacitors are said to be connected in series when the second plate of a
capacitor is connected to the first plate of the next capacitor and so on.
• Capacitors are connected in series as per the below diagram.
• The charge across the arrangement will remain the same.
• The total potential drop is the sum of individual potential drops across each
capacitor.
• The inverse of total capacitance is the sum of inverse of individual
capacitances.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Combination of Capacitors - Parallel

Capacitors are said to be connected in parallel when the first and second plate
of a capacitor is connected to the first and second plate of the next capacitor
respectively.
• Capacitors are connected in parallel as per the below diagram.
• The potential across the arrangement will remain the same.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

• The total charge is the sum of individual charges across each capacitor.
• The total capacitance is sum of individual capacitances.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Energy stored in a Capacitor

Energy is stored in the capacitor when work is done to move a positive charge
from negative conductor towards the positive conductor against the repulsive
force.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

VAN DE GRAAFF Generator

Van de graaff generator is used to generate high voltages of the order of a few
million volts. This results in generation of large electric fields for experimental
purposes.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

Principle

• The inner sphere has a higher potential than outer if the charge q is
positive.
• If the two spheres are connected through a wire, the charge will flow
from high to low potential.
• Thus, providing smaller potentials at the inner sphere will keep building
large amount of charge at the outer sphere, till the breakdown field of
air (3 x 106 V/m) is reached.
• This accumulates close to millions of volts.

Construction

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

• A large spherical conducting shell (of few metre radius) is supported at a

height several meters above the ground on an insulating column.
• A long narrow endless belt insulating material, like rubber or silk, is
wound around two pulleys – one at ground level, one at the center of
the shell.
• This belt is kept continuously moving by a motor driving the lower
pulley.
• It continuously carries positive charge, sprayed on to it by a brush at
ground level, to the top.
• There it transfers its positive charge to another conducting brush
connected to the large shell.
• Thus positive charge is transferred to the shell, where it spreads out
uniformly on the outer surface and a voltage difference of as much as 6
or 8 million volts (with respect to ground) can be built up.

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Class 12 Physics | Electrostatic Potential And Capacitance | Part-2(Capacitance)

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