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Related Concept Videos

Osmosis and Osmotic Pressure of Solutions02:40

Osmosis and Osmotic Pressure of Solutions

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A number of natural and synthetic materials exhibit selective permeation, meaning that only molecules or ions of a certain size, shape, polarity, charge, and so forth, are capable of passing through (permeating) the material. Biological cell membranes provide elegant examples of selective permeation in nature, while dialysis tubing used to remove metabolic wastes from blood is a more simplistic technological example. Regardless of how they may be fabricated, these materials are generally...
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Osmosis01:30

Osmosis

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Osmosis is the movement of free water molecules through a semipermeable membrane.  The water's concentration gradient across the membrane is inversely proportional to the solutes' concentration. Whereas diffusion transports material across membranes and within cells, osmosis transports only water across a membrane, and the membrane limits the diffusion of solutes in the water. Osmosis is a special case of diffusion.
Water, like other substances, moves from a high concentration of...
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Osmosis00:47

Osmosis

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Approximately 60% to 95% of the weight of living organisms is attributed to water. Therefore, maintaining appropriate water balance within cells is of paramount importance. Osmosis is the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane, such as a cell’s plasma membrane. In living organisms, water plays a crucial role as a solvent—a molecule that dissolves other molecules.
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Ion Channels01:19

Ion Channels

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The movement of ions like sodium, potassium, and calcium into and out of the cell is essential to maintain the electrochemical gradient in living cells. The ion channels—a class of membrane transport proteins—help maintain this ionic gradient for the smooth functioning of physiological activities such as maintaining cell size and volume, conducting nerve impulses, and gas and nutrient exchange.
Ion channels are specialized integral membrane proteins on the plasma membrane that allow...
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Osmotic Pressure01:26

Osmotic Pressure

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Osmosis is a process where solvent molecules move toward a solution through a semipermeable membrane. As the solution dilutes due to the entry of solvent, it expands. This expansion increases the hydrostatic pressure of the solution. When the hydrostatic pressure equals the osmotic pressure, osmosis stops.Osmotic pressure, denoted by Π, is the minimum pressure needed to prevent the solvent from passing into the solution by osmosis. The van 't Hoff equation calculates the osmotic pressure...
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The Significance of Membrane Transport01:44

The Significance of Membrane Transport

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The transport of solutes across the cell membrane is essential for metabolic processes, like maintaining cell size and volume, generating the action potential, exchanging nutrients and gases, etc. Membrane transport can be either passive or active. It can be simple diffusion, facilitated, or mediated transport aided by transport proteins such as transporters and channels.
Transporters facilitate either an active or passive movement of solutes. They can allow a single-molecule transport down its...
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Generation and Control of Electrohydrodynamic Flows in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions
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Generation and Control of Electrohydrodynamic Flows in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions

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Osmotic flow through fully permeable nanochannels.

C Lee1, C Cottin-Bizonne2, A-L Biance2

  • 1Institut Lumière Matière, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1-CNRS, UMR 5306, Université de Lyon, F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France and School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Korea Aerospace University, Goyang 412-791, Korea.

Physical Review Letters
|July 5, 2014
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals that solute gradients can drive water flow in fully permeable nanochannels, a phenomenon termed diffusio-osmotic transport. This discovery challenges traditional osmosis concepts and offers new insights into nanoscale fluid dynamics.

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Area of Science:

  • Nanoscale science
  • Physical chemistry
  • Fluid dynamics

Background:

  • Osmosis traditionally relies on semipermeable membranes.
  • Understanding fluid transport in nanochannels is crucial for nanotechnology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate and investigate osmotic flow in nonselective nanochannels.
  • To quantify diffusio-osmotic transport driven by solute gradients.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a high-sensitivity fluorescence imaging technique.
  • Measured water flow rates at the femtoliter per minute level in single nanochannels.

Main Results:

  • Observed convective liquid motion from high to low electrolyte concentration due to salinity gradients.
  • Demonstrated diffusio-osmotic transport under neutral polymer gradients, with flow in the opposite direction.
  • Provided the first experimental evidence and quantitative analysis of this interfacial transport.

Conclusions:

  • Diffusio-osmotic transport occurs in fully permeable nanochannels, driven by solute gradients.
  • This phenomenon, influenced by interfacial effects and polymer entropic depletion, is critical for nanoscale dynamics.
  • The findings necessitate a re-evaluation of transport mechanisms in confined systems.