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Simple Definitions

The most important electronics terms, demystified in one place.

Insulator

Our Take

A material that resists the flow of electricity. This is because the electrons in the materials are tightly bound to the nucleus, meaning it will take a lot of energy to pull that electron away. This gives insulators an extremely large band gap between the valence band and the conduction band.

Book Definition

A material that does not allow current to flow when voltage is applied, because of its high resistance.

Grob’s Basic Electronics, 11th Edition by Mitchel E. Schultz

A material that does not conduct current.

Electronic Devices : Conventional Current Version, 9th Edition by Thomas L. Floyd

Wikipedia

An electrical insulator is a material whose internal electric charges do not flow freely; very little electric current will flow through it under the influence of an electric field. This contrasts with other materials, semiconductors and conductors, which conduct electric current more easily. The property that distinguishes an insulator is its resistivity; insulators have higher resistivity than semiconductors or conductors.

A perfect insulator does not exist, because even insulators contain small numbers of mobile charges (charge carriers) which can carry current. In addition, all insulators become electrically conductive when a sufficiently large voltage is applied that the electric field tears electrons away from the atoms. This is known as the breakdown voltage of an insulator. Some materials such as glass, paper and Teflon, which have high resistivity, are very good electrical insulators. A much larger class of materials, even though they may have lower bulk resistivity, are still good enough to prevent significant current from flowing at normally used voltages, and thus are employed as insulation for electrical wiring and cables. Examples include rubber-like polymers and most plastics which can be thermoset or thermoplastic in nature.

Insulators are used in electrical equipment to support and separate electrical conductors without allowing current through themselves. An insulating material used in bulk to wrap electrical cables or other equipment is called insulation. The term insulator is also used more specifically to refer to insulating supports used to attach electric power distribution or transmission lines to utility poles and transmission towers. They support the weight of the suspended wires without allowing the current to flow through the tower to ground.

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