Comment on “Origin of the Curie–von Schweidler law and the fractional capacitor from time-varying capacitance” [J. Pow. Sources 532 (2022) 231309]

In this Letter we highlight some fundamental errors in the paper “Origin of the Curie–von Schweidler law and the fractional capacitor from time-varying capacitance” [J. Pow. Sources 532 (2022) 231309] by V. Pandey. In particular, with the use of the convolution integral of linear time-varying capacitance with the time-derivative of voltage (i.e. Eq (9) as suggested by the author), one ends up with step voltage function generating a constant current on a capacitive device, which is not true. We also question that a step voltage results in zero charge according to the r.h.s. of Eq. (9), but in reality it is well known that there is a charge build up in response to such an excitation applied on capacitive devices. This renders the rest of the manuscript questionable. Other inconsistencies are also presented and discussed. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.