Glycerine as a cap dielectric?

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Glycerine as a cap dielectric?
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 07:08:02 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

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From:  Jim Lux [SMTP:jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net]
Sent:  Friday, April 17, 1998 10:12 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Glycerine as a cap dielectric?

> From:  Matthew Mills [SMTP:mattmills-at-mindless-dot-com]
> Sent:  Thursday, April 16, 1998 3:35 PM
> To:  Tesla List
> Subject:  Glycerine as a cap dielectric?
> 
> Hi I was just thinking....(Woah Dangerous!!!) and have heard that
> glycerine makes a good dielectric as its dielectric constant is about
> 60, would this be any good for caps? or does it have extremely high loss
> factors?

Glycerine is very hygroscopic, and as soon as it picks up any water, it is
a terrible insulator.

Distilled water has a dielectric constant of 80+ and is a fairly decent
insulator, as long as your pulses are less than a microsecond. It has no
breakdown voltage (i.e. it is a conductor, but a bad one, and the
conductivity is inversely proportional to frequency)