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Osmotic pressure
Osmotic pressure is the hydrostatic pressure produced by a solution in a space divided by a semipermeable membrane due to a differential in the concentrations of solute. Osmoregulation is the homeostasis mechanism of an organism to reach balance in osmotic pressure. Additional recommended knowledgeOsmotic potential is the opposite of water potential with the former meaning the degree to which a solvent (usually water) would want to stay in a liquid.
When a biological cell is in a hypotonic environment, the cell interior accumulates water, water flows across the cell membrane into the cell, causing it to expand. In plant cells, the cell wall restricts the expansion, resulting in pressure on the cell wall from within called turgor pressure. The osmotic pressure π of a dilute solution can be calculated using the formula
where
Note the similarity of the above formula to the ideal gas law and also that osmotic pressure is not dependent on particle charge. ApplicationsOsmotic pressure is the basis of reverse osmosis, a process commonly used to purify water. The water to be purified is placed in a chamber and put under an amount of pressure greater than the osmotic pressure exerted by the water and the solutes dissolved in it. Part of the chamber opens to a differentially permeable membrane that lets water molecules through, but not the solute particles. The osmotic pressure of ocean water is about 27 atm. Reverse osmosis desalinators use pressures around 50 atm to produce fresh water from ocean salt water. Osmotic pressure is necessary for many plant functions. It is the resulting turgor pressure on the cell wall that allows herbaceous plants to stand upright, and how plants regulate the aperture of their stomata. In animal cells which lack a cell wall however, excessive osmotic pressure can result in cytolysis.
For the calculation of molecular weight by using colligative properties, osmotic pressure is the most preferred property Categories: Cell biology | Membrane biology |
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Osmotic_pressure". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia. |