How to Make Electrolytic Capacitors
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 พ.ย. 2012
- How to make a simple electrolytic capacitor using aluminum from a soda can, distilled water and baking soda, or sodium bicarbonate. I start out explaining what an electrolytic capacitor is, how it's one where the dielectric is a very thin layer of aluminum oxide. The plates are really the aluminum plate that the oxide is coated on and an electrolyte made of distilled water and sodium bicarbonate that the whole thing is submerged in. I then explain how to form the oxide layer and demonstrate it using a simple adapter as the DC power supply. During formation I monitor the electrical current using a digital meter on the amp scales. Once formed, I measure the capacitance using another digital multimeter and then use the new electrolytic capacitor as part of a circuit that makes a light flash.
See also my "How to Make Capacitors - Low Voltage" video, one's that aren't polarized:
• How to Make Capacitors...
and my "How to Make High Voltage Capacitors" video:
• How to Make High Volta...
And for even higher capacitance, 580 microfarads, see my "How to Make a High Capacitance Electrolytic Capacitor" video here:
• How to Make a High Cap...
My webpage about making electrolytic capacitors:
rimstar.org/science_electronic...
The "How to make Rochelle salt piezoelectric crystals" video I mention is here:
• How to make Rochelle s...
Follow behind-the-scenes on:
Twitter #!/RimStarz
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rimstar.org
A few minutes ago I was doing some self-study in my old GROB Basic Electronics text book on aluminum electrolytic capacitors. This video really helped me to grasp how these caps are constructed. Now I can go back to my reading. Thank you very much RimstarOrg!
After just watching
I'm going to make sure I see it if it will be there! Jeez, the ideas you come up with are just perfect! Everything you do can be made at home, if the instructions are followed exactly, and it's not just fun to copy your work, but it also opens like this huge field of further own experiments! respect!!!
You're welcome! Glad I could oblige. Thanks for the suggestion.
Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
Thanks, I'm glad you think so! And you're welcome!
Iam learning all over again. Please keep them coming when you get the time.
My pleasure, I'm glad to help!
That's the equivalent of connecting multiple capacitors in series. The effect is that the result will be able to handle higher voltages than just one of the capacitors would be able to. But the overall capacitance will be less than any one of the capacitors has. If you're trying get a higher capacitance using multiple capacitors then connect them in parallel. That means to connect all their negative plates together and all their positive plates together.
As a former electronics instructor I am impressed by the clarity of this demo.
Thanks, man. Yeah I've had some messages from people asking for alternatives to homemade power supplies, or easier solutions, so I figured I'd use something simpler this time.
Thanks. Yeah, I'm keeping my eye out for how to make ultracaps too. Hopefully someday.
Ohh, thanks. Well that would do it :). Great videos, I'd never have thought that practical capacitors were possible to make.
Thanks! Glad you like it.
When you reverse polarity you can break down the oxide layer which is the insulating dielectric between the conductive electrolyte and the aluminum, also conductive. This causes a short circuit since the two conductive materials. With enough electrical current conducting through this short circuit, heat is produced. This heats up the electrolyte building up enough pressure for the capacitor to either leak or blow up.
Sure, as long as you can get a complete enough layer for good insulation then it should work. Aluminum quickly forms a layer of oxidation even just in air so before I'd even placed them in the electrolyte for the first time they already had some oxidation. But clearly it wasn't enough given that when I plugged in the power adapter it conducted current fairly well. It's worth a try. Make sure you make a video and let us know.
Easy to understand as normal, very good video. Great stuff for guys like me.
You're welcome. Glad it helped.
Thanks! I'm working on a follow-up this week - a large surface area, aluminum foil, spiral wound one with paper towel as separator. Should get some decent capacitance (millifarads?) if it conducts well enough through the soaked paper towel. Just made a mess on my first try and too late to try again today. If that's not this week's video then you'll know it didn't work! :)
thank you for this very instructive video