Question

Can dielectric conduct electricity?

Answer 1

According to the question we have to determine whether a dielectric can conduct electricity or not. If one is aware of the property of materials that assist in the conduction of electricity, one can easily solve this problem. Compare the property required for the conduction of electricity with the property of dielectric. This can be used to determine whether the dielectric will conduct electricity or not.

Complete step by step solution:
Electric conduction is possible only due to the movement of charges in the material. So for a material to conduct the material must have free charges. A good conductor has a large number of free electrons as a result of which conduction of electricity is possible.
An insulator is not capable of conducting electricity as there are very few free charges that are present in the material. The absence of free charges in insulators makes them poor conductors of electricity.
Dielectrics are insulators that do not have free electrons. Hence they are poor conductors of electricity. But when placed in an electric field dielectrics can be polarized to conduct electricity. The loosely bound electrons when placed in an electric field drift from the equilibrium position. This shift results in dielectric polarization. Here, the positive charges align in the direction of the applied field, and the negative charges are opposite to the direction of the electric field.
From this, we can determine that dielectrics have no free charges and thereby are poor conductors of electricity.

Note: Here, we have discussed the property of a dielectric material. We have determined that dielectrics are poor conductors of electricity. They do not have any free electrons which implies that the electrons are tightly bound to the nucleus thereby conduction of electricity is not possible. In dielectrics only polarization is possible; this too is possible only through the application of electricity.