Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Can capacitors explode?
At the beginning of the 1990s, some Japanese manufacturers started the development of a new, low-ohmic water-based class of electrolytes. Water, with its high permittivity of ε = 81, is a powerful solvent for electrolytes, and possesses high solubility for conductivity-enhancing concentrations of salt ions, resulting in significantly improved conductivity compared to electrolytes with organic solvents like GBL. But water will react quite aggressively and even violently with unprotected aluminum, converting metallic aluminum (Al) into aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3), via a highly exothermic reaction that gives off heat, causing gas expansion that can lead to an explosion of the capacitor. Therefore, the main problem in the development of water-based electrolytes is achieving long-term stability by hindering the corrosive action of water on aluminum.
To decouple other subcircuits from the effect of the sudden current demand, a decoupling capacitor can be placed in parallel with the subcircuit, across its supply voltage lines. When switching occurs in the subcircuit, the capacitor supplies the transient current. Ideally, by the time the capacitor runs out of charge, the switching event has finished, so that the load can draw full current at normal voltage from the power supply and the capacitor can recharge. The best way to reduce switching noise is to design a PCB as a giant capacitor by sandwiching the power and ground planes across a dielectric material.
The losses of film capacitors and some class 2 ceramic capacitors are mostly specified with the dissipation factor tan δ. These capacitors have smaller losses than electrolytic capacitors and mostly are used at higher frequencies up to some hundred MHz. However the numeric value of the dissipation factor, measured at the same frequency, is independent on the capacitance value and can be specified for a capacitor series with a range of capacitance. The dissipation factor is determined as the tangent of the reactance (formula_27) and the ESR, and can be shown as the angle δ between imaginary and the impedance axis.
In comparison with the other two main capacitor technologies, ceramic and electrolytic capacitors, film capacitors have properties that make them particularly well suited for many general-purpose and industrial applications in electronic equipment.
Two main advantages of film capacitors are very low ESR and ESL values. Film capacitors are physically larger and more expensive than aluminum electrolytic capacitors (e-caps), but have much higher surge and pulse load capabilities. As film capacitors are not polarized, they can be used in AC voltage applications without DC bias, and they have much more stable electrical parameters. Polypropylene film capacitors have relatively little temperature dependence of capacitance and dissipation factor, so that they can be applied in frequency-stable Class 1 applications, replacing Class 1 ceramic capacitors.
Nevertheless, electrolytic capacitors can withstand for short instants a reverse voltage for a limited number of cycles. In detail, aluminum electrolytic capacitors with non-solid electrolyte can withstand a reverse voltage of about 1 V to 1.5 V. This reverse voltage should never be used to determine the maximum reverse voltage under which a capacitor can be used permanently.
The EBW and the slapper detonator are the safest known types of detonators, as only a very high-current fast-rise pulse can successfully trigger them. However, they require a bulky power source for the current surges required. The extremely short rise times are usually achieved by discharging a low-inductance, high-capacitance, high-voltage capacitor (e.g., oil-filled, Mylar-foil, or ceramic) through a suitable switch (spark gap, thyratron, krytron, etc.) into the bridge wire. A very rough approximation for the capacitor is a rating of 5 kilovolts and 1 microfarad, and the peak current ranges between 500 and 1000 amperes. The high voltage may be generated using a Marx generator. Low-impedance capacitors and low-impedance coaxial cables are required to achieve the necessary current rise rate.
The basic components needed for the exploding wire method are a thin conductive wire and a capacitor. The wire is typically gold, aluminum, iron or platinum, and is usually less than 0.5 mm in diameter. The capacitor has an energy consumption of about 25 kWh/kg and discharges a pulse of charge density 10 - 10 A/mm, leading to temperatures up to 100,000 K. The phenomenon occurs over a time period of only 10 - 10 seconds.
A motor capacitor, such as a start capacitor or run capacitor (including a dual run capacitor) is an electrical capacitor that alters the current to one or more windings of a single phase AC induction motor to create a rotating magnetic field. There are two common types of motor capacitors, "run capacitors" and "start capacitors". The units of capacitance are labeled in microfarads (µF). Older capacitors may be labeled with the obsolete terms "mfd" or "MFD" which can be ambiguous but are, especially in this context, used for microfarad as well (a millifarad is 1000 microfarad and not usually seen on motors).
Large capacitor banks (reservoirs) are used as energy sources for the exploding-bridgewire detonators or slapper detonators in nuclear weapons and other specialty weapons. Experimental work is under way using banks of capacitors as power sources for electromagnetic armour and electromagnetic railguns or coilguns.
The flux compression generator is one alternative to capacitors. When fired, it creates a strong electromagnetic pulse, which is inductively coupled into one or more secondary coils connected to the bridge wires or slapper foils. A low energy density capacitor equivalent to a compression generator would be roughly the size of a soda can. The energy in such a capacitor would be ·C·V, which for the above-mentioned capacitor is 12.5 J. (By comparison, a defibrillator delivers ~200 J from 2 kV and perhaps 20 µF. The flash-strobe in a disposable camera is typically 3 J from a 300 V capacitor of 100 µF.)
The manufacturers of film capacitors can slow the aging process caused by moisture absorption, by using better encapsulation. This more expensive fabrication processing may account for the fact that film capacitors with the same basic body design can be supplied in different life time stability ratings called Performance grades. Performance grade 1 capacitors are "longlife", Performance grade 2 capacitors are "general purpose" capacitors. The specifications behind this grades are defined in the relevant standard of IEC/EN 60384-x (see standards).
High-voltage capacitors may catastrophically fail when subjected to voltages or currents beyond their rating, or as they reach their normal end of life. Dielectric or metal interconnection failures may create arcing that vaporizes dielectric fluid, resulting in case bulging, rupture, or even an explosion. Capacitors used in RF or sustained high-current applications can overheat, especially in the center of the capacitor rolls. Capacitors used within high-energy capacitor banks can violently explode when a short in one capacitor causes sudden dumping of energy stored in the rest of the bank into the failing unit. High voltage vacuum capacitors can generate soft X-rays even during normal operation. Proper containment, fusing, and preventive maintenance can help to minimize these hazards.
Large capacitor banks (reservoir) are used as energy sources for the exploding-bridgewire detonators or slapper detonators in nuclear weapons and other specialty weapons. Experimental work is under way using banks of capacitors as power sources for electromagnetic armour and electromagnetic railguns and coilguns.
Unlike many large industrial high voltage capacitors, water capacitors do not require oil. Oil found in many older designs of capacitors can be toxic to both animals and humans. If a capacitor breaks open and its oil is released, the oil often finds its way into the water table, which can cause health problems over time.
When the capacitor is discharging, the strength of the electric field is decreasing and the common orientation of the molecular dipoles is returning to an undirected state in a process of relaxation. Due to the hysteresis, at the zero point of the electric field, a material-dependent number of molecular dipoles are still polarized along the field direction without a measurable voltage appearing at the terminals of the capacitor. This is like an electrical remanence. The oriented dipoles will be discharged spontaneously over time and the voltage at the electrodes of the capacitor will decay exponentially. The complete discharge time of all dipoles can be days to weeks depending on the material. This "reloaded" voltage can be retained for months, even in electrolytic capacitors, caused by the high insulation resistance in common modern capacitor dielectrics. The discharge of a capacitor and the subsequent reloading can be repeated several times.
Capacitors store energy in an electrostatic field between their plates. Given a potential difference across the conductors (e.g., when a capacitor is attached across a battery), an electric field develops across the dielectric, causing positive charge (+Q) to collect on one plate and negative charge (-Q) to collect on the other plate. If a battery is attached to a capacitor for a sufficient amount of time, no current can flow through the capacitor. However, if an accelerating or alternating voltage is applied across the leads of the capacitor, a displacement current can flow. Besides capacitor plates, charge can also be stored in a dielectric layer.
An electrolytic capacitor (abbreviated e-cap) is a polarized capacitor whose anode or positive plate is made of a metal that forms an insulating oxide layer through anodization. This oxide layer acts as the dielectric of the capacitor. A solid, liquid, or gel electrolyte covers the surface of this oxide layer, serving as the (cathode) or negative plate of the capacitor. Due to their very thin dielectric oxide layer and enlarged anode surface, electrolytic capacitors have a much higher capacitance-voltage (CV) product per unit volume than ceramic capacitors or film capacitors, and so can have large capacitance values. There are three families of electrolytic capacitor: aluminum electrolytic capacitors, tantalum electrolytic capacitors, and niobium electrolytic capacitors.
The effects of varying the characteristics of the dielectric can be used for sensing purposes. Capacitors with an exposed and porous dielectric can be used to measure humidity in air. Capacitors are used to accurately measure the fuel level in airplanes; as the fuel covers more of a pair of plates, the circuit capacitance increases. Squeezing the dielectric can change a capacitor at a few tens of bar pressure sufficiently that it can be used as a pressure sensor.[68] A selected, but otherwise standard, polymer dielectric capacitor, when immersed in a compatible gas or liquid, can work usefully as a very low cost pressure sensor up to many hundreds of bar.
An AC load only can be applied to a non-polarized capacitor. Capacitors for AC applications are primarily film capacitors, metallized paper capacitors, ceramic capacitors and bipolar electrolytic capacitors.
Polyimide (PI), a thermoplastic polymer of imide monomers, is proposed for film capacitors called Polyimide-, PI- or Kapton capacitors. Kapton is the trade name of polyimide from DuPont. This material is of interest because its high temperature resistance up to 400 °C. But as of 2012, no specific PI capacitor series film capacitors have been announced. The offered film capacitor, Kapton CapacitorCL11, announced from “dhgate” is a “Type: Polypropylene Film Capacitor”. Another very strange Kapton capacitor can be found at YEC, a Chinese producer of capacitors. Here the announced “Kapton capacitors” are in reality supercapacitors, a completely different technology Perhaps the Kapton film in these supercapacitors is used as a separator between the electrodes of this double-layer capacitor. Kapton films are often offered as an adhesive film for the outer insulation of capacitor packages.
Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are polarized capacitors because of their anodization principle. They can only be operated with DC voltage applied with the correct polarity. Operating the capacitor with wrong polarity or with AC voltage leads to a short circuit and can destroy the component. The exceptions is the bipolar aluminum electrolytic capacitor, which has a back-to-back configuration of two anodes in one case and can be used in AC applications.
The voltage at the terminals generated by the dielectric absorption may possibly cause problems in the function of an electronic circuit. For sensitive analog circuits such as sample and hold circuits, integrators, charge amplifiers or high-quality audio circuits, Class-1 ceramic or polypropylene capacitors instead of Class-2 ceramic capacitors, polyester film capacitors or electrolytic capacitors are used. For most electronic circuits, particularly filtering applications, the small dielectric absorption voltage has no influence on the proper electrical function of the circuit. For aluminum electrolytic capacitors with non-solid electrolyte which are not built into a circuit, the dielectric absorption voltage generated can be a personnel safety risk. The voltage can be quite substantial, for example 50 V for 400 V electrolytic capacitors, and can cause damages to semiconductor devices, or cause sparks during installation in the circuit. Larger aluminum electrolytic capacitors and high-voltage power capacitors are transported and delivered short-circuited to dissipate this unwanted and possibly dangerous energy.
Failed Chhsi capacitor with crusty electrolyte buildup on the top Failed capacitors next to CPU motherboard socket Failed Tayeh capacitors which have vented subtly through their aluminum tops Failed electrolytic capacitors with swollen can tops and expelled rubber seals, dates of manufacture "0106" and "0206" (June 2001 and June 2002) Failed capacitor has exploded and exposed internal elements, and another has partially blown off its casing Failed Choyo capacitors (black color) which have leaked brownish electrolyte onto the motherboard
Lowering ESR and ESL remains a major research and development objective for all polymer capacitors. Some constructive measures can have also a major impact on the electrical parameters of capacitors. Smaller ESR values can be achieved for example by parallel connection of several conventional capacitor cells in one case. Three parallel capacitors with an ESR of 60 mΩ each have a resulting ESR of 20 mΩ. This technology is called “multi-anode” construction and will be used at polymer tantalum capacitors. In this construction up to six individual anodes in one case are connected. This design is offered as polymer tantalum chip capacitors as well as lower expensive tantalum chip capacitors with MnO electrolyte. Multi-anode polymer tantalum capacitors have ESR values on the single-digit milliohm range.
The dimensions of these power ceramic capacitors can be very large. At high power applications the losses of these capacitors can generate a lot of heat. For this reason some special styles of power ceramic capacitors have pipes for water-cooling.