• swag_money@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    It’s dielectric, meaning it is conductive depending on how you run current through it

    silicon is a semiconductor! dielectric is just a fancy term for an electrical insulator.

    :.dielectric grease is NOT CONDUCTIVE.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
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      16 days ago

      Yeah, I was thinking of the other materials used in computers and had a brain fart. Although I think dielectric insulators also let ions through, otherwise it’d just be an insulator

      • swag_money@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        so to my understanding the ideal dielectric is a perfect insulator. dielectrics however have some free electrons and the ability to become polarized in the presence of an electric field. this has the benefit of increasing the charge carrying surface area in something like a capacitor. so i think dielectrics are a subset of insulators and by definition do not pass current/free electrons.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          14 days ago

          I mean, there’s no such thing as a perfect insulator (at least nothing we can build with)

          It definitely resists the movement of free elections through… But think a capacitor let’s ions flow, grease is a sort of fluid…

          So I’m thinking it must be a material that let’s atoms move around to some degree, but resists the transfer of electrons

          • swag_money@lemmy.world
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            14 days ago

            I mean, there’s no such thing as a perfect insulator

            I’m well aware that nothing is perfect. i was talking about definitions :p

            It definitely resists the movement of free elections through… But think a capacitor let’s ions flow, grease is a sort of fluid…

            the two terminals of a capacitor are insulated from eachother but they can pass alternating current via capacitive coupling. I’m not sure what you mean about flowing ions in grease. do you mean electrolyte? like in a battery?

            So I’m thinking it must be a material that let’s atoms move around to some degree, but resists the transfer of electrons

            you’re describing electrical resistance :p