14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC?

- Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

sign up log in tour help

_
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange Here's how it works:
is a question and answer site for
electronics and electrical engineering
professionals, students, and
enthusiasts. Join them; it only takes a
minute:
Anybody can ask Anybody can The best answers are voted
a question answer up and rise to the top
Sign up

How does a capacitor block DC?

I am confused with this! How does a capacitor block DC?

I have seen many circuits using capacitors powered by a DC supply. So, if capacitor blocks DC, why should it be used
in such circuits?
Also, the voltage rating is mentioned as a DC value on the capacitor. What does it signify?

capacitor dc

edited Oct 18 '12 at 20:07 asked Aug 16 '11 at 15:36

Peter Mortensen Arun M
1,516 2 14 20 450 2 7 14

8 If you apply a direct current source to a capacitor, it will pass DC just fine. (The voltage will increase
until the cap explodes, of course...) endolith Aug 16 '11 at 16:10

9 Answers

I think it would help to understand how a capacitor blocks DC (direct current)

while allowing AC (alternating current).

Let's start with the simplest source of DC, a battery:

When this battery is being used to power something, electrons are drawn into the
+ side of the battery, and pushed out the - side.

Let's attach some wires to the battery:

There still isn't a complete circuit here (the wires don't go anywhere), so there is
no current flow.

But that doesn't mean that there wasn't any current flow. You see, the atoms in
the copper wire metal are made up of a nuclei of the copper atoms, surrounded by

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 1/7
14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
their electrons. It can be helpful to think of the copper wire as positive copper
ions, with electrons floating around:

Note: I use the symbol e- to represent an electron

In a metal it is very easy to push the electrons around. In our case we have a
battery attached. It is able to actually suck some electrons out of the wire:

The wire attached to the positive side of the battery has electrons sucked out of
it. Those electrons are then pushed out the negative side of the battery into the
wire attached to the negative side.

It's important to note that the battery can't remove all the electrons. The electrons
are generally attracted to the positive ions they leave behind; so it's hard to
remove all the electrons.

In the end our red wire will have a slight positive charge (cause it's missing
electrons), and the black wire will have a slight negative charge (cause it has extra
electrons).

So when you first connect the battery to these wires, only a little bit of current
will flow. The battery isn't able to move very many electrons, so the current flows
very briefly, and then stops.

If you disconnected the battery, flipped it around, and reconnected it: electrons
in the black wire would be sucked into the battery and pushed into the red wire.
Once again there would only a tiny amount of current flow, and then it would
stop.

The problem with just using two wires is that we don't have very many electrons
to push around. What we need is a large store of electrons to play with - a large
hunk of metal. That's what a capacitor is: a large chunk of metal attached to the
ends of each wire.

With this large chunk of metal, there are a lot more electrons we can easily push
around. Now the "positive" side can have a lot more electrons sucked out of it, and
the "negative" side can have a lot more electrons pushed into it:

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 2/7
14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

So if you apply an alternating current source to a capacitor, some of that current

will be allowed to flow, but after a while it will run out of electrons to push around,
and the flow will stop. This is fortunate for the AC source, since it then reverses,
and current is allowed to flow once more.

But why is a capacitor rated in DC volts

A capacitor isn't just two hunks of metal. Another design feature of the capacitor is
that it uses two hunks of metal very close to each other (imagine a layer of wax
paper sandwiched between two sheets of tin foil).

The reason they use "tin foil" separated by "waxed paper" is because they want
the negative electrons to be very close to the positive "holes" they left behind.
This causes the electrons to be attracted to the positive "holes":

Because the electrons are negative, and the "holes" are positive, the electrons are
attracted to the holes. This causes the electrons to actually stay there. You can
now remove the battery and the capacitor will actually hold that charge.

This is why a capacitor can store a charge; electrons being attracted to the holes
they left behind.

But that waxed paper isn't a perfect insulator; it's going to allow some leakage.
But the real problem comes if you have too many electrons piled up. The electric
field between the two "plates" of the capacitor can actually get so intense that it
causes a breakdown of the waxed paper, permanently damaging the capacitor:

In reality a capacitor isn't made of tin foil and waxed paper (anymore); they use
better materials. But there is still a point, a "voltage", where the insulator between
the two parallel plates breaks down, destroying the device. This is the capacitor's
rated maximum DC voltage.

edited Aug 1 '12 at 7:03 answered Aug 18 '11 at 0:49

Dan Ian Boyd
103 3 954 6 5

3 Thanks a lot! Neat and great explanation.. Arun M Aug 18 '11 at 2:51

2 +1 A great explanation, images, and building on examples. JYelton Dec 6 '12 at 21:25

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 3/7
14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

4 +1. One of the best explanations I've ever read on capacitors. cbmeeks Aug 26 '14 at 13:50

1 A good explanation but it doesn't answer the OP's question in a direct fashion: With AC, you have an
instantaneous variation in the voltage. At every point of the AC wave, the voltage is varying and when
you have a capacitor in the ckt, this change/variation in voltage can be transmitted across the
dielectric to the other side/plat via an electric field of varying intensity. Therefore current flows in the
circuit even though the dielectric is an insulator to the flow of electrons. user41067 Oct 15 '15 at 8:27

1 you need to think of this in terms of waves with electrons/molecular polarization acting as a
means/medium for waves. user41067 Oct 15 '15 at 9:45

Let me see if I can add one more perspective to the other 3 answers.

Capacitors act like a short at high frequencies and an open at low frequencies.

So here are two cases:

Capacitor in series with signal

In this situation, AC is able to get through, but DC is blocked. This is commonly

called a coupling capacitor.

Capacitor in parallel with signal

In this situation, DC is able to get through, but AC is shorted to ground causing it

to be blocked. This is commonly called a decoupling capacitor.

What is AC?

I have used the terms "High Freq" and "Low Freq" rather loosely as they don't
really have any numbers associated with them. I did this because what is
considered low and high depends on what is going on in the rest of the circuit. If
you want to learn more about this you can read about low-pass filters on
Wikipedia or some of our RC filter questions.

Voltage Rating

The voltage that you see with capacitors is the maximum voltage you can safely
apply to the capacitor before you start to run the risk of the capacitor physically

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 4/7
14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
breaking down. Sometimes this happens as an explosion, sometimes fire, or
sometimes just gets hot.

edited Apr 13 at 12:32 answered Aug 16 '11 at 17:50

Community Kellenjb
1 14.4k 3 36 75

Kellen, I appreciate your use of pictures, but I'm missing an answer to the question how the cap
blocks DC. You just say that it does. stevenvh Aug 17 '11 at 6:26

1 @Stevenvh I felt the the confusion that the OP had was not about the physics of how it blocks DC, but
rather why it is used if it does block DC. Plus I figured your answer did a pretty good of explaining it
at a more physical level and didn't think I could explain that part any better than you. Kellenjb Aug 17
'11 at 11:54

A simple way of thinking about it is that a series capacitor blocks DC, while a
parallel capacitor helps maintain a steady voltage.

This is really two applications of the same behavior - a capacitor reacts to try to
keep the voltage across itself constant. In the series case, it's quite happy to
remove a steady voltage difference, but any abrupt change in one side will be
passed through to the other to keep the voltage difference constant. In the parallel
case, any abrupt change in voltage will be reacted to.

answered Aug 16 '11 at 16:23

Chris Stratton
17.2k 2 22 52

nice simple answer, kudos vicatcu Aug 17 '11 at 17:38

The explanation is in the fact that opposite charges attract each other. A capacitor
is a compact construction of 2 conducting plates separated by a very thin
insulator. If you put DC on it one side will be positively charged and the other side
negatively. Both charges attract each other but can't pass the insulating barrier.
There's no current flow. So that's end of story for DC.
For AC it's different. One side will successively be positively and negatively
charged, and attract negative and positive charges resp. So changes on one side
of the barrier provoke changes on the other side, so that it appears that the
charges cross the barrier, and that current effectively flows through the capacitor.

A charged capacitor is always DC charged, i.e. one side has the positive charges
and the other side the negative. These charges are a storage for electrical
energy, which is necessary in many circuits.

The maximum voltage is determined by the insulating barrier. Above a certain

voltage it will breakdown and create a short circuit. That can happen under DC but
also under AC.

edited Aug 17 '11 at 6:31 answered Aug 16 '11 at 17:10

stevenvh
125k 15 398 603

This is not a very technical answer, but it's a graphical explanation that I find very
funny and simple:

answered May 15 '12 at 14:25

clabacchio
11.5k 4 22 65

1 Yes, nice, but you'll get in trouble if you actually try to explain that AC path! :-) stevenvh May 15 '12 at
15:07

1 @stevenvh yeah, of course I know it's a bit stupid, but I've always found it clever :) clabacchio May

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 5/7
14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
15 '12 at 15:16

Its a weird answer :D :D :D :D :D perilbrain Sep 15 '12 at 3:55

Actually it helped me lot to understand clearly what is a capacitor. Thank u! Mr Bonjour Dec 9 '13 at
15:01

The amount of charge that develops across the plates of a capacitor with a given
voltage across its terminals is governed by the formula:

Q = C V (charge = capacitance * voltage)

Differentiating both sides (current is the time derivative of charge), gives:

dV
I = C (current = capacitance * the rate of change in voltage)
dt

dV
DC voltage is the same as saying = 0.
dt

So a capacitor allows no current to flow "through" it for DC voltage (i.e. it blocks

DC).

The voltage across the plates of a capacitor must also change in a continuous
manner, so capacitors have the effect of "holding up" a voltage once they are
charged to it, until that voltage can be discharged through a resistance. A very
common use for capacitors is therefore stabilize rail voltages and decouple rails
from ground.

The voltage rating is how much voltage you can apply across the plates before the
electro-static forces break down the material properties of the dielectric material
between the plates rendering it broken as a capacitor :).

edited Aug 16 '11 at 17:09 answered Aug 16 '11 at 16:09

Adam Lawrence vicatcu
27.1k 1 35 85 14.8k 6 53 120

First off, a capacitor blocks DC and is a lower impedance to AC, while an inductor
tends to block AC yet pass DC very easily. By "blocking", we mean than it offers a
high impedance to the signal we're talking about.

First, though, we need to define a few terms to explain this. You know what
resistance is, right? Resistance is the opposition to current flow that results in the
burning of power, measured in watts. It does not matter if the current is AC or DC,
the power dissipated by a perfect resistor is the same amount for either.

So resistance is one kind of "impedance" to current flow. There are 2 others -

"inductive reactance", and "capacitive reactance". Both are also measured in
ohms, like resistance, but both are different in that, for one thing, they vary with
frequency, and for another, they don't actually consume power like a resistance
does. So all together, there are 3 kinds of impedance - resistive, inductive, and
capacitive.

The amount of blocking or impedance of inductors in ohms can be determined by:

X L = 2f L

Where 2pi is approximately 6.28, f is the frequency (AC, obviously) of a signal, L is

the inductance measured in henries, and where "X sub L" is the inductive
reactance in ohms.

Inductive reactance is the impedance of a component due to inductance; it is a

kind of resistance, but does not actually burn power in watts like a resistor does,
and since "f" for frequency needs to be supplied, the value of it varies with
frequency for a given inductor.

Notice that as the frequency goes up, so does the impedance ( AC resistance) in
ohms. And notice that if the frequency equals zero, then so does the impedance -
a frequency of zero means DC, so inductors have virtually no resistance to DC
current flow. And as the frequency goes up, so does the impedance.

Capacitors are the opposite- the formula for capacitive reactance is

1
XC =
2f C

Here, C is the capacitance of the cap in farads, "2pi" and "f" are the same as
above, and "X-sub-C" is the capacitive reactance in ohms. Notice that here, the
reactance is "one divided by" the frequency and the capacitance - this results in
values of impedance that go down with frequency and capacitance. So if the
frequency is high, the impedance will be low, and if the frequency is near zero,
which is DC, the impedance will be nearly infinite - in other words, capacitors block

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 6/7
14/07/2017 How does a capacitor block DC? - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
DC, but pass AC, and the higher the frequency of the AC signal, the less the
impedance to it.

edited Jul 27 '13 at 11:57 answered Aug 16 '11 at 18:11

Dave Tweed manpreet dhillon
89.9k 9 91 177 81 1

My answer to such questions is always "water". Water flowing through pipes is a

surprisingly accurate analogy for current flowing through wires. Current is how
much water flows through a pipe. Voltage difference becomes the difference in
water pressure. The pipes are supposed to lie flat, so that gravity plays no role.

In such an analogy, a battery is a water pump, and a capacitor is a rubber

membrane which completely blocks the pipe. DC is water flowing constantly in
one direction through a pipe. AC is water flowing back and forth all the time.

With this in mind, it should be obvious that a capacitor blocks DC: since the
membrane can only stretch so far, water can't just keep on flowing in the same
direction. There will be some flow while the membrane stretches (i.e. the capacitor
charges), but at one point it becomes stretched enough to completely balance the
water pressure, thus blocking any further flow.

It also becomes obvious that a capacitor won't block AC completely, but it does
depend on the membrane properties. If the membrane is sufficiently stretchy
(high capacitance), it will pose no challenge to water flowing back and forth
quickly. If the membrane is really rather stiff (e.g. a thin sheet of plastic), this
corresponds to low capacitance, and if the water flows back and forth slowly, such
flow will be blocked, but very high frequency oscillations will still make it through.

This analogy has been so exceptionally useful to me that I really wonder why it
isn't used more widely.

answered Jul 23 '12 at 11:08

Roman Starkov
1,218 1 15 23

A friend helped me understand why this analogy is not used more widely: apparently he has as little
intuition for water flow in pipes as he does for current flow in wires! Roman Starkov Jun 5 '14 at 22:59

I'll go for the shortest-answer qualitative-take-away approach:

A capacitor across DC rails is there, in effect, to short any AC signals that might
otherwise get onto the supply rails, so the amount of AC across your DC circuit is
reduced.

The voltage rating on a cap is the maximum voltage (sum of DC and any AC
present!) that the cap should see. Exceed this voltage and the cap will fail.

answered Aug 16 '11 at 22:09

JustJeff
17k 3 33 68

protected by stevenvh Sep 4 '12 at 7:21

Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation
on this site (the association bonus does not count).

Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/18301/how-does-a-capacitor-block-dc 7/7