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Updated: Sep 23, 2025

Measuring the Osmotic Water Permeability Coefficient Pf of Spherical Cells: Isolated Plant Protoplasts as an Example
Published on: October 8, 2014
Two-step diffusion in cellular hygroscopic (vascular plant-like) materials
Marion Cocusse1, Matteo Rosales1, Benjamin Maillet1
1Laboratoire Navier (Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech-Univ Gustave Eiffel-CNRS), Champs-sur-Marne, France.
Abstract:
Vascular plants, a vast group including conifers, flowering plants, etc., are made of a cellular hygroscopic structure containing water in the form of either free (i.e., in a standard liquid state) or bound (i.e., absorbed in the cell walls) water. From nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, we distinguish the dynamics of bound water and free water in a typical material (softwood) with such a structure, under convective drying. We show that water extraction relies on two mechanisms of diffusion in two contiguous regions of the sample, in which respectively the material still contains free water or only contains bound water. However, in any case, the transport is ensured by bound water. This makes it possible to prolong free water storage despite dry external conditions and shows that it is possible to extract free water in depth (or from large heights) without continuity of the free water network.
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