Polarized Capacitor

Good to hear but sad resources or willpower is scarce.

What's the point of a polarized cap in EC?

The polarized capacitor behaves no different from the regular one in EC except that it shows fire when it has too much voltage in the wrong direction. This indicates that it shouldn’t be used in this direction just like real life polarized capacitors. In real life if a polarized capacitor encounters too much negative voltage for too long it’ll explode.

Also in real life, non-polar capacitors are usually 1μF or less and everything above is usually polarized. There are unpolarized capacitors much larger than 1μF constructed from two polarized ones in series with the negative terminals hardwired together. I believe this is called a bipolar capacitor. I’m not sure if small capacitors (1μF and less) are considered bipolar or non-polar.

http://everycircuit.com/circuit/6569908551548928

I do have a 0.22uF polar cap, salvaged from a device. Long-term charge-keeping capability will be reduced in that case, coz of saturation current. This can be made very less by using high-value caps. But that'd require bulkier diodes and thus more saturation current, causing the leakage. That basically means that it can't be using for storing energy for a long time. Do you know a situation in which high-value non-polarized caps are required?

Check this out : https://www.google.com/search?q=100uF+non+polarized+cap&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwizuKXro8rsAhWa8DgGHSs6Bo8Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=100uF+non+polarized+cap&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIECAAQGDIFCAAQzQIyBQgAEM0COgIIADoGCAAQCBAeUJa3AViWtwFgvbkBaABwAHgAgAFziAHeAZIBAzAuMpgBAKABAcABAQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=EpKSX7PnOJrh4-EPq_SY-Ag&bih=560&biw=360&client=ms-android-samsung&prmd=sinv#imgrc=_1fSnqrzNZ6zpM Does this contain diodes? This seems so strange.

I don’t know any situation off hand for large value bipolar capacitors. Also, I can’t use that link since iOS doesn’t let me copy/paste text from comments. Instead put the link in the description of a circuit and give me a link to that circuit.

https://everycircuit.com/circuit/5691278233436160

That’s probably internally two 200μF polarized capacitors with the negative ends connected together and the positive ends being the two terminals of the 100μF bipolar capacitor.

Seems pretty large, so there's a chance that it contains a pair of diodes.

There aren’t actual silicon diodes in electrolytic capacitors. See the comments here: http://everycircuit.com/circuit/6569908551548928

@jason9, no idea what @stanislav_mavilovski is saying. But I suppose that he's making a low value cap? In the pic that I'd sent to you, the cap is pretty small. Dunno what's inside the 100uF electrolytic cap.

Non-polarized*

He’s saying that there exists an electrolytic rectifier (basically a diode constructed out of electrolytic stuff rather than silicon) in electrolytic capacitors.

An oxide layer which acts just like a diode. Well, I'd referred to many circuits and from my basic interpretation (from what I had gathered from the existing designs), the idea involving the internal "diodes" of a capacitor won't work, probably because the conduction at the forward-biased state is less at such low voltages? It appears that electrolytic caps, when reverse-biased, depletes the electrolytic layer (excuse me for being so vague here, I'm ignorant about electro chemistry) without causing any significant heat. Of course under -0.7V, it's a safe bet but it's still not recommended for prolonged use.