Dielectrics are known as insulators because they are bad conductors of electricity.

Somehow,
they still permit the motion of a few electrons at high temperature creating a negligible drift of
current. For Example: glass, mica, ebonite, rubber etc. The main difference between dielectrics
and insulators is their applications.
APPLICATIONS IN A CAPACITOR:
In capacitors, we have two oppositely charged plates that are separated by an insulating
medium with a high permittivity. The purpose of high permittivity is to store greater charge at a
given voltage. This medium is known as dielectric, and can be mentioned as the dielectric of
capacitor. The key purpose of doing this is to prevent the conducting plates having charges
from coming into direct contact with each other. Now consider the situation of a linear
dielectric with permittivity ε and thickness d between the two conducting plates with uniform
charge density σε.. . Then the charge density is as follows

σε = ε V/d

and the capacitance per unit area is as follows

C= σε /V= ε /d

The foremost duty of dielectric inside the capacitor is to stock electric energy. Depending on the
types of dielectric between the plates of the capacitor, the capacitors can be divided into three types.

1. Gaseous dielectric
2. Liquid dielectric
3. Solid dielectric

Radio frequency and other low frequency circuits use vacuum, air, or other gases as dielectric. For
higher voltage applications, mineral oil can be used as dielectric. Whenever we require a high
capacitance, a mixture of solid and liquid dielectric is used in capacitors. (for example: such
capacitors are used for power factor correction in electric power distribution systems. Whereas in
laboratory we use capacitors with solid dielectrics (sodium, glass and titanium oxide) as standard
capacitors.

The dielectric in between the plates of the capacitor serves three main purposes.
1. They prevent the plates from coming together, thereby maintaining higher capacitances.
2. Decreases the strength of electric field to increase the effective capacitance, which
demonstrates we get the identical charge at a lesser voltage.
3. Lessens the likelihood of shorting out during process at high voltage.

Dielectric strength can be defined as the strength of electric field beyond which the insulating
material starts to break down and conduct. A dielectric can upsurge the capacitance. This brings into
account the phenomenon of polarization. Increasing the ease with which the material is polarized
also increases the value of dielectric constant k. This constant k is defined as k=Eo/E.