Natural mica contains many other materials
Natural mica contains many other materials including, iron, sodium, ferric oxide, and lithium. Because of the variability in composition of natural mica, mica destined for use in capacitors must be carefully inspected and classified, which adds to the manufacturing cost. All varieties of mica are chemically very stable and inert. Mica does not react with oil, water, most acids, (the exceptions are hydro-fluoric and sulfuric acid) alkalis, and solvents.
Mica’s thermal, electrical, and chemical properties make for excellent capacitors. Capacitance change with temperature range from ± 500 ppm/°C to 50 ppm/°C, depending on the construction technique. Mica capacitors exhibit very little voltage dependence, with dC/dV less than 0.1%. Mica capacitors have high Q or conversely small power factors (range 0.0001–0.0004) that are quite independent of frequency. This, combined with low inductance designs, result in capacitors that are ideal for high frequency and RF applications. Specification sheets of mica capacitors commonly show parameters plotted into the gigahertz range.
