Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Diffusion

Diffusion

Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...

Diffusion

Diffusion

Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...

Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics

Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics

Passive diffusion is a critical process that allows small lipophilic drugs to cross the cell membrane along a concentration gradient. This mechanism's efficiency depends on four primary factors: the membrane's surface area, the drug's lipid-water partition coefficient, the concentration gradient, and the membrane's thickness.
When administered orally, drugs establish a substantial concentration gradient between the gastrointestinal (GI) lumen and the bloodstream, expediting their diffusion into...

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane

Proteins show rotational as well as lateral diffusion across the membrane. The lateral diffusion of proteins was confirmed through the cell fusion experiment where mouse and human cells were fused, resulting in hybrid cells. When the human and mouse cells fused, the specific membrane proteins on human and mouse cells were marked with the red and green-fluorescent markers, respectively. Initially, the red and green fluorescence was located on the respective hemisphere of the cell. As time...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Spontaneous expulsive suprachoroidal hemorrhage following high dose anticoagulation in a highly myopic patient.

Journal francais d'ophtalmologie·2025

Same author

Keep an eye on Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases·2020

Same author

[Obstructive hydrocephalus and Crouzon syndrome].

Journal francais d'ophtalmologie·2019

Same author

In the eye of the beholder: Assessing the water quality of shoreline parks around the Island of Montreal through citizen science.

The Science of the total environment·2016

Same author

Inspection of thick welded joints using laser-ultrasonic SAFT.

Ultrasonics·2016

Same author

Liquid-vapor transition and critical behavior of the ultrasoft restricted primitive model of polyelectrolytes: a Monte Carlo study.

The Journal of chemical physics·2014

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 10, 2026

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

Published on: May 1, 2018

Diffusion of nanoparticles in dense fluids.

F Ould-Kaddour¹, D Levesque

¹Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Tlemcen, BP 119, Tlemcen 13000, Algeria.

The Journal of Chemical Physics

|October 24, 2007

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Molecular dynamics simulations reveal how nanoparticle size affects diffusion in fluids. Larger particles show altered velocity decay at short times and diameter-dependent scaling at long times.

More Related Videos

Visualizing Diffusional Dynamics of Gold Nanorods on Cell Membrane using Single Nanoparticle Darkfield Microscopy

Visualizing Diffusional Dynamics of Gold Nanorods on Cell Membrane using Single Nanoparticle Darkfield Microscopy

Published on: March 5, 2021

Microfluidic Buffer Exchange for Interference-free Micro/Nanoparticle Cell Engineering

Microfluidic Buffer Exchange for Interference-free Micro/Nanoparticle Cell Engineering

Published on: July 10, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 10, 2026

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

Published on: May 1, 2018

Visualizing Diffusional Dynamics of Gold Nanorods on Cell Membrane using Single Nanoparticle Darkfield Microscopy

Visualizing Diffusional Dynamics of Gold Nanorods on Cell Membrane using Single Nanoparticle Darkfield Microscopy

Published on: March 5, 2021

Microfluidic Buffer Exchange for Interference-free Micro/Nanoparticle Cell Engineering

Microfluidic Buffer Exchange for Interference-free Micro/Nanoparticle Cell Engineering

Published on: July 10, 2016

Area of Science:

Physical Chemistry
Fluid Dynamics
Nanotechnology

Background:

Understanding nanoparticle diffusion is crucial for applications in materials science and medicine.
Hydrodynamic interactions between nanoparticles and solvents significantly influence their motion.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of nanoparticle diameter on its diffusion dynamics in a fluid solvent.
To analyze the velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) and its scaling behavior.

Main Methods:

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to model a single spherical nanoparticle in a fluid solvent.
Simulations were conducted while keeping the nanoparticle mass constant and varying its diameter.

Main Results:

At short times, increasing nanoparticle diameter strongly modifies the decay of the VACF.
At long times, the hydrodynamic correlations induce an algebraic decay in the VACF.
This long-time decay exhibits a scaling behavior that is dependent on the nanoparticle diameter.

Conclusions:

Nanoparticle size is a critical parameter influencing both short-term and long-term diffusion behavior.
The observed scaling behavior highlights the importance of hydrodynamic interactions in nanoparticle transport.