Essay on Osmosis

However, it is a spontaneous movement of the solvent molecules in a direction that is aimed to bring out an equalization effect on the overall solute concentration on the other side. This term also can be used to describe a physical process in which any given solvent molecules pass across a semipermeable membrane dividing or giving rise to two different solutions of various concentrations. In a lay man’s language, it the movement of solvent molecules from the weaker concentrated side to the stronger concentrated sides of the membrane. This process in most cases ends up diluting the more strong side until the two solutions become of equal concentration. Changing the concentration of sodium chloride solution by increasing it leads to an increase in the mass of the potato sample.

For this reason, large sized molecules never make it through the semipermeable, membrane. This the reason why large sized particles do not pass through the semi-permeable membrane. This process offers the primary means by which water molecules are transported both to the inside and outside of the body cells. This among many other reasons makes this process vital in the biological systems. For instance, the turgor pressure of the cells is to some extent maintained by this method of osmosis. Factors that lead to reversed osmosis include osmotic pressure. When it increased in the region containing low concentrations of the solute, the overall water movement is changed. The amount of the force or pressure applied to hinder the passage of the water across the semi-permeable membrane towards the side where the concentration of the solute is high is always equivalent to the osmotic pressure of the solution or turgor.

An osmotic gradient is too an essential factor in osmosis. It refers to the difference that exists between the two solutions on either side of the semi-permeable membrane. This process of osmosis can be demonstrated using potato experiments. Potatoes are rich in both starch and water a factor that makes them excellent for this research. This because they will be able to gain water when submerged in the watery solution of the sodium chloride solution. Furthermore, they exhibit the ability to lose water when placed in a solution that is more concentrated than its cells. The potato is recommended in setting up osmosis experiments for students of all levels and ages. This fluctuation in mass it because water either enters or exits the potato cell.

This can be explained by the osmotic theory. When a plant cell is submerged in a solution that has more solutes than the solvent, the mass eventually decreases because the Solanum cells are less concentrated than the sodium chloride solution. This forces water to move across the membrane of the potato cell towards the more concentrated solution. However, it important to not only the water moles moves across the semipermeable membrane and not the sodium or the chloride ions. Plasmolysis This the process by which plants cells lose water when placed in a hypertonic solution ( Helms, 44). Inside this hypertonic solution, the potato cell loses water followed by the loose of the turgor pressure by plasmolysis. A decrease in pressure was observed to the extent that the protoplasm of the potato cell is forced to peel away from the wall of the cell.

As a consequence, gaps are left between the membrane and the cell wall a factor that pushes the plant to shrink and crumple. Further decrease in pressure ends up in cytorrhysis, which is the complete collapse of the cell wall. The protoplast starts to peel off the cell wall surface. This process usually is reversed if the cell is placed back into a hypotonic solution that allows the water to flow back into the cell. Convex plasmolysis is always more serious and causes a severe effect on the plant cells than the concave form. During this case, both the protoplast and the plasma membrane loses a lot of water leading to a complete detach from the cell wall. Consequently, the plant cell wall collapses entirely in a process known as cirrhosis.

A practical application of plasmolysis in real life situation is the use of weedicides chemicals (Ge, 228). These are chemicals used in the eliminating of the unwanted plant species in the farms. Another example is the use of sugars or salts in the in the food preservation as the pickles, jams, and jellies. This preservation method ensures water loss by the cells hence becoming less conducive towards the microorganisms growth such as bacteria. Turgidity In general, this term refers the swelling of the tissues or cells resulting from water uptake. This enables them to remain turgid during cases of external pressure during instances such as jumping and running. Plant cells remain turgid almost all through. This is enabled by the presence of the large vacuole inside each cell (Helms, 36).

Water moves to the vacuole through a particular type of membrane called the tonoplast. Once water gets into the vacuole, it forces the cell to swell hence creating pressure towards the cell wall. However, since bacteria’s are single-celled, they cannot use the cell wall in the building of the multicellular structures. Due to this reason, the cell wall of the bacteria functions to protect the bacteria from incidences of breaking open. If the bacteria lack a cell wall, placing it in pure water would result in excess water intake resulting in turgidity that would eventually cause lysis. However, the cell wall is capable of maintaining the increasing pressure as result of excess water intake hence preventing the rupturing of the cell membrane.

This suggests that animals should have methods such as an active pump to help in expelling of excess water in their cells. A concentration of 1mole/dm3 that had the most significant concentration exhibited a higher weight loss than the other solution samples. This eventually leads to the support of the hypothesis. The data obtained from this experiment can be considered reliable because of the number of samples used. Using several samples increases the chances of minimizing the errors that might rise hence affecting the results. However, some minor errors might arise if one is not keen when carrying out measuring activities, recording of the data obtained or even using solutions that are not exact in concentration. Work cited Amjad, Zahid.