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Related Concept Videos

Diffusion01:21

Diffusion

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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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Diffusion01:12

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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...
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Fluid Movement Between Compartments01:18

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The force applied by fluids against a surface, known as hydrostatic pressure, initiates the transfer of fluid among different compartments. Within our blood vessels, the blood's hydrostatic pressure is a result of the heart's pumping action. At the arteriolar end of capillaries, hydrostatic pressure (capillary blood pressure) exceeds the opposing colloid osmotic pressure created primarily by plasma proteins like albumin. This discrepancy in pressure propels plasma and nutrients from the...
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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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Facilitated Transport01:19

Facilitated Transport

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The chemical and physical properties of plasma membranes cause them to be selectively permeable. Since plasma membranes have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, substances need to be able to transverse both regions. The hydrophobic area of membranes repels substances such as charged ions. Therefore, such substances need special membrane proteins to cross a membrane successfully. In  facilitated transport, also known as facilitated diffusion, molecules and ions travel across a...
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Updated: Dec 7, 2025

Generation and Control of Electrohydrodynamic Flows in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions
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Diffusioosmotic and convective flows induced by a nonelectrolyte concentration gradient.

Ian Williams1,2, Sangyoon Lee2,3, Azzurra Apriceno4,2

  • 1Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; iwilliams@ibecbarcelona.eu.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|September 29, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Fluid flow in glucose gradients shows a shift from diffusioosmosis to convection as the gradient increases. New models explain this behavior, highlighting glucose diffusioosmosis sensitivity to surface properties.

Keywords:
convectiondiffusioosmosismicrofluidics

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Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Physical Chemistry

Background:

  • Glucose is a vital energy source, and its concentration gradients drive transport in biological systems.
  • Diffusioosmosis, fluid flow induced by solute-surface interactions, is understood for electrolytes but less so for nonelectrolytes like glucose.
  • Convection, driven by mass density gradients, also contributes to transport in concentration gradients.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate fluid flow mechanisms in glucose concentration gradients.
  • To characterize diffusioosmosis and convection for nonelectrolyte solutes.
  • To develop models explaining observed flow behaviors in glucose gradients.

Main Methods:

  • Experimental measurement of fluid flow in a thin channel with controlled glucose gradients.
  • Comparison of experimental data with established theories of diffusioosmosis and convection.
  • Development and refinement of theoretical models incorporating surface-solute interactions, surface heterogeneity, and concentration-dependent viscosity.

Main Results:

  • Observed a crossover from diffusioosmosis-dominated to convection-dominated flow with increasing glucose gradient.
  • Found that diffusioosmotic flow speed has a weaker concentration dependence than predicted and is significant even in dilute solutions.
  • Established models incorporating surface-solute interactions, surface heterogeneity, and concentration-dependent viscosity successfully explained the experimental data.

Conclusions:

  • Nonelectrolyte diffusioosmosis is highly sensitive to surface properties, solute-surface interactions, and solution viscosity.
  • Existing theories do not fully capture the complex fluid dynamics in nonelectrolyte gradients.
  • A comprehensive understanding of these sensitivities is crucial for modeling biological transport across various length scales.