Capacitors are a popular electronic component finding use in modern devices and circuits. With the evolution of technology, capacitors are coming up in varied categories, finding use in different areas. As you take your decision to buy capacitors, here’s a look at some of the major types of capacitors available in the marketplace. Almost all of them can be bought online from trustworthy sites.

Before discussing the major types of capacitors and their uses, let us understand what exactly a capacitor is. It is a passive component helping in the storage of electrical energy within an electrical field. The capacitor usually constitutes two close conductors with the dielectric material in between to separate them. The plates collect the electric charge when connected to a power source, one plate service as the positive and the other as the negative.

The different types of capacitors are as follows:

Electrolytic Capacitor

Where large capacitor values are needed, electrolytic capacitors come of great use. A thin metal film layer acts as one electrode while a jelly or paste-like electrolyte solution acts as the second electrode. Such capacitors are best for DC power supply circuit as they are small in ripple voltage reduction and large in capacitance. This type of capacitor is mainly involved in coupling and decoupling.

Film Capacitor

Capacitors plastic film is also available wherein the thin plastic acts as the dielectric. These capacitors are manufactured by leveraging a technologically advanced film drawing process. Depending upon capacitor properties, the film may also be metalized. When you are looking forward to buy capacitors, you can opt for these, in case low cost, low inductance and stability are the requirements. There are various kinds of film capacitors, namely PTE film, polypropylene film, polystyrene film, metalized film and polyester film.

Ceramic Capacitor

In ceramic capacitors, a ceramic material serves as the dielectric. In fact, ceramic is one of the oldest materials to be used for manufacturing capacitors. Two of the most commonly used types are ceramic disc capacitor and multilayer ceramic capacitor. The latter is smaller in size and more widely used. Ceramic capacitors can generate high frequency responses owing to inductance, resistance, and other such parasitic effects.

Non-Polarized Capacitor

The non-polarized capacitors are usually divided into two subcategories- the electrolytic non-polarized capacitor and the plastic foil capacitor. While the plastic ones are naturally non-polarized, the electrolytic ones constitute two capacitors placed back to back, leading to non-polarized results with half capacitance. Non-polarized capacitors need AC applications placed in parallel or in series with the power supply or signal.

Now that you have good knowledge of the varied kinds of capacitors and their uses, you can conveniently buy capacitors as per your requirements. When you browse a leading online site to purchase capacitors, be sure to check the product specifications with great care to make sure that you are buying the most appropriate product. The capacitor you buy should be suitable for the application for which the purchase is being made.