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Related Concept Videos

Diffusion01:21

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...
Diffusion01:12

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...
Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion03:48

Behavior of Gas Molecules: Molecular Diffusion, Mean Free Path, and Effusion

Although gaseous molecules travel at tremendous speeds (hundreds of meters per second), they collide with other gaseous molecules and travel in many different directions before reaching the desired target. At room temperature, a gaseous molecule will experience billions of collisions per second. The mean free path is the average distance a molecule travels between collisions. The mean free path increases with decreasing pressure; in general, the mean free path for a gaseous molecule will be...
Collisions in Multiple Dimensions: Introduction01:05

Collisions in Multiple Dimensions: Introduction

It is far more common for collisions to occur in two dimensions; that is, the initial velocity vectors are neither parallel nor antiparallel to each other. Let's see what complications arise from this. The first idea is that momentum is a vector. Like all vectors, it can be expressed as a sum of perpendicular components (usually, though not always, an x-component and a y-component, and a z-component if necessary). Thus, when the statement of conservation of momentum is written for a problem,...
Protein Diffusion in the Membrane01:24

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...
Interference and Diffraction02:18

Interference and Diffraction

Interference is a characteristic phenomenon exhibited by waves. When two electromagnetic waves interact with their peaks and troughs coinciding, a resulting wave with enhanced amplitude is produced. This is known as constructive interference. In this case, the two waves interacting are in phase with each other.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
06:55

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level

Published on: September 26, 2016

Diffusion amid random overlapping obstacles: similarities, invariants, approximations.

Igor L Novak1, Fei Gao, Pavel Kraikivski

  • 1Richard D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06030, USA. novak@uchc.edu

The Journal of Chemical Physics
|April 26, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals that effective diffusion coefficients are largely independent of obstacle shape, simplifying calculations. These findings enable rapid estimation of void percolation thresholds and diffusion properties for various complex obstacle configurations.

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Last Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
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Published on: September 26, 2016

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The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
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The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow

Published on: May 1, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Materials Science
  • Chemical Engineering

Background:

  • Understanding effective diffusion in porous media is crucial for transport phenomena.
  • Random overlapping obstacles create complex geometries affecting diffusion pathways.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the similarities in effective diffusion across different obstacle shapes.
  • To develop accurate and efficient methods for estimating diffusion coefficients and percolation thresholds.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized efficient and accurate numerical techniques to simulate diffusion.
  • Analyzed the behavior of effective diffusion coefficients (D(eff)) against excluded volume fractions (φ).

Main Results:

  • Identified essential invariance of D(eff) with respect to obstacle shapes.
  • Demonstrated the applicability of a two-parameter power law for D(eff) (φ) across most excluded volume fractions.
  • Observed small deviations from these properties, even near the percolation threshold.

Conclusions:

  • The observed similarities allow for quick estimation of void percolation thresholds.
  • Approximate reconstruction of D(eff) (φ) is feasible for arbitrary obstacle shapes.
  • A simple multiplication rule in 3D facilitates fast estimation of D(eff) for mixtures of overlapping obstacles.