Is there any good reason as to why the charge and discharge rates of a capacitor may be different? I'm trying to reason why, but I don't see why (in an ac circuit) one direction should be any different than the other...
Electrolytic capacitors are based on a chemical reaction which may not have exactly the same rate in the forward and reverse directions. Also, electrolytics have noticeable internal leakage. Film and ceramic capacitors exhibit dielectric absorbtion or soakage which is fairly linear for both charge and discharge but can sometimes cause unexpected results.
