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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...

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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...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 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 in a quasi-one-dimensional system on a periodic substrate.

J C N Carvalho¹, K Nelissen, W P Ferreira

¹Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Caixa Postal 6030, Campus do Pici, 60455-760 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. joaoclaudio@fisica.ufc.br

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

|April 3, 2012

Summary

Particle diffusion is influenced by substrate potentials and particle arrangement. Increasing substrate amplitude generally reduces diffusion, but specific configurations show enhanced diffusion and reentrant behavior due to structural changes.

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Area of Science:

Condensed matter physics
Statistical mechanics
Computational physics

Background:

Charged particle diffusion is crucial in various physical systems.
Understanding particle behavior under external potentials is key to controlling material properties.
Yukawa potential describes screened electrostatic interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the diffusion of charged particles with Yukawa interactions.
Analyze the effects of parabolic confinement and periodic substrate potentials.
Determine how particle density, substrate amplitude, and interaction range influence diffusion.

Main Methods:

Langevin dynamic simulations were employed.
Simulations explored variations in particle density, substrate amplitude, and interaction potential range.
Particle configurations (single-chain vs. multichain) were examined.

Main Results:

Diffusion generally decreases with increasing periodic substrate potential amplitude.
Specific substrate potential strengths lead to increased diffusion with higher amplitude.
Particle arrangement significantly impacts diffusion dynamics.
Reentrant diffusion behavior observed for certain configurations due to structural transitions.

Conclusions:

Particle diffusion is complex, showing non-monotonic behavior under combined confinement and substrate potentials.
Structural ordering and particle arrangement play critical roles in diffusion dynamics.
The interplay between interparticle interactions and external potentials dictates diffusive behavior.