If they are connected in series to a cell, charge can flow from the terminals of the cell until the sum of the two voltages is equal to that of the cell; but the sum of the charges on the two connected plates must remain the same. Oh I meant would the charge on the plates of the capacitor change?
Also for capacitors connected in series, all the series connected capacitors will have the same charging current flowing through them as iT = i1 = i2 = i3 etc. Two or more capacitors in series will always have equal amounts of coulomb charge across their plates.
Figure 8.3.1 8.3. 1: (a) Three capacitors are connected in series. The magnitude of the charge on each plate is Q. (b) The network of capacitors in (a) is equivalent to one capacitor that has a smaller capacitance than any of the individual capacitances in (a), and the charge on its plates is Q.
If two charged capacitors are connected together (with resistance) they will come to the same voltage. If they are connected in series to a cell, charge can flow from the terminals of the cell until the sum of the two voltages is equal to that of the cell; but the sum of the charges on the two connected plates must remain the same.
As for any capacitor, the capacitance of the combination is related to both charge and voltage: C = Q V. (8.3.1) (8.3.1) C = Q V. When this series combination is connected to a battery with voltage V, each of the capacitors acquires an identical charge Q.
However, when the series capacitor values are different, the larger value capacitor will charge itself to a lower voltage and the smaller value capacitor to a higher voltage, and in our second example above this was shown to be 3.84 and 8.16 volts respectively.