capacitance

Also known as electrostatic capacity, electric capacitance

Capacitance is the ability of an object to store electric charge. It is measured by the change in charge in response to a difference in electric potential, expressed as the ratio of those quantities. Commonly recognized are two closely related notions of capacitance: self capacitance and mutual capacitance. An object that can be electrically charged exhibits self capacitance, for which the electric potential is measured between the object and ground. Mutual capacitance is measured between two components, and is particularly important in the operation of the capacitor, an elementary linear elec

AI overview

Capacitance is the ability of an object or pair of objects to store electric charge, measured by how much charge builds up when an electrical voltage is applied. It matters because it's a fundamental property that explains how capacitors—common components in electronics—work and how electrical systems store and manage energy.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Physical quantity.unit: farad
Physical quantity.otherunits: μF, nF, pF
Physical quantity.baseunits: F = A2 s4 kg−1 m−2
Physical quantity.dimension: wikidata
Physical quantity.derivations: C = charge / voltage

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Research

34,015 papers

Understanding the Electric Double-Layer Structure, Capacitance, and Charging Dynamics.ReviewChemical reviews · 2022Wu JDOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.2c00097
Parasitic Capacitance-Free Flexible Tactile Sensor with a Real-Contact Trigger.Soft robotics · 2022Kim S, Jung Y, Oh S et al.DOI: 10.1089/soro.2020.0051
High-capacitance air-brushed electrodes for capacitive label-free bioassays.Talanta · 2025Boonkaew S, Linfield S, Ferapontova EEDOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2025.128118
Observing Mesoscopic Nucleic Acid Capacitance Effect and Mismatch Impact via Graphene Transistors.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2022Zhang M, Li Z, Jia Y et al.DOI: 10.1002/smll.202105890
Parasitic Capacitance in High-Density Neural Electrode Arrays: Sources and Evaluation Methods.IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering · 2025Ghazavi A, Troyk PR, Cogan SFDOI: 10.1109/TBME.2024.3472708
Capacitance-Driven Modulation of Cardiac Impulse Conduction by an Intramembrane Molecular Photoswitch.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Florindi C, Ostini A, Bertarelli C et al.DOI: 10.3390/ijms262411766
Dynamical nonlinear memory capacitance in biomimetic membranes.Nature communications · 2019Najem JS, Hasan MS, Williams RS et al.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11223-8
Interfacial capacitance immunosensing using interdigitated electrodes: the effect of insulation/immobilization chemistry.Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP · 2019Castiello FR, Porter J, Modarres P et al.DOI: 10.1039/c9cp02129a

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Wikidata facts

Image: Capacitor principle sketch.jpg

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Commons category: Capacitance
Stack Exchange tag: physics.stackexchange.com/tags/capacitance

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~23 min read

Article

17 sections

Contents

Self capacitance
Mutual capacitance
Capacitance matrix
Capacitors
Stray capacitance
Capacitance of conductors with simple shapes
Energy storage
Nanoscale systems
Single-electron devices
Few-electron devices
Capacitance in electronic and semiconductor devices
Negative capacitance in semiconductor devices
Measuring capacitance
See also
References
Further reading
External links

The capacitance between two conductors depends on the opposing surface area of the conductors, the distance between those conductors, and the permittivity of any dielectric material between them. For many dielectric materials, the permittivity, and thus the capacitance, is independent of the potential difference between the conductors and the total charge on them.