Question

A capacitor has some dielectric between its plates and the capacitor is connected to a DC source. The battery is now disconnected and then the dielectric is removed. State whether the capacitance, the energy stored in it, the electric field, charge stored and voltage will increase, decrease or remain constant.

Answer 1

Assume a parallel-plate capacitor, of plate area A and plate separation d is filled with a dielectric of relative permittivity (dielectric constant) k. Its capacitance is C = \(\frac{k \varepsilon_{0} A}{d}\) ......... (1)
If it is charged to a voltage (potential) V, the charge on its plates is Q = CV.

Since the battery is disconnected after it is charged, the charge Q on its plates, and consequently the product CV, remain unchanged.

On removing the dielectric completely, its capacitance becomes from Eq. (1),
C' = \(\frac{\varepsilon_{0} A}{d}=\frac{1}{k} C\) ............. (2)
that is, its capacitance decreases by the factor k. Since C'V' = CV, its new voltage is
V' = \(\frac{C}{C^{\prime}}\) V = kV ........(3)

so that its voltage increases by the factor k. The stored potential energy, U = \(\frac{1}{2}\) QV, so that Q remaining constant, U increases by the factor k. The electric field, E = V/ d, so that E also increases by a factor k.