An alternative method to the osmotic stressing polymers: the osmomanometer

Although stressing polymers have been widely and successfully used to determine the osmotic properties of solutes in aqueous media, the osmotic stress method presents some limitations. To overcome these drawbacks, an alternative and more direct method, which has been named the osmomanometer, is described in this letter. The osmotic pressure accessible by this method ranges typically from 1 to 30 kPa using a simple hydrostatic effect and can be extended to higher pressures by using pressurized gas. This method needs neither a pressure sensor nor calibration.