Question

What is the capacitance per square centimeter of such a cell wall?.

Answer 1

Cell membranes (the walled enclosure around a cell) are typically about d = 7.1 nm thick. They are partially permeable to allow charged material to pass in and out, as needed. Equal but opposite charge densities build up on the inside and outside faces of such a membrane, and these charges prevent additional charges from passing through the cell wall. We can model a cell membrane as a parallel-plate capacitor, with the membrane itself containing proteins embedded in an organic material to give the membrane a dielectric constant of about 12.