hi there, i,m asking what are the best metals that could be used as plates to construct good parallel plate capacitor
If you're talking about building one - For a fixed capacitor with solid insulation, aluminum foil is undoubtedly the most practicalYou may need to bolt the plates together to get electrical connection, as aluminum is difficult to solder toThin copper foil would be good but expensive and hard to findIf it's an air-insulated construction then thin aluminum sheetLeyden jars (early capacitors) I suspect used lead or perhaps tin foilFor a variable one, air-gap ones usually use aluminum plates - they must be crimped or staked into the shaft which is likely brassThe tiny plastic-insulated trimming caps that rotate probably use tin-plated brassThe somewhat larger mica type has the upper plate at least made of springy brass and uses a screw to press that plate closer to the bottomA lot depends on how big, what voltage etcI once inherited a radio-amateur-made high-voltage capacitor that weighed about ten poundsIt was aluminum foil plates insulated with panes of window glass and the whole submerged in motor oil in a wooden boxI know all this because I took it apart.
