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Diffusion And Osmosis Experiment

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Introduction
A dialysis membrane is a semi-permeable membrane that is used as a barrier that facilitates the exchange or to impede the travel of material or molecules through the process of diffusion and/or osmosis. Our own body cells have a plasma membrane that controls the movements of substances into and out of the cell (Tortora, 2017). Diffusion is the movement of any solute or particle from one place to another. However, osmosis entirely refers to the movement of water across the membrane. Osmotic pressure refers to the minimum pressure that needs to be applied to a solution to prevent the inward flow of its pure solvents water across a semi-permeable membrane (Tortora, 2017). Our body controls water amount through both osmotic and hydrostatic …show more content…

After the first 15 minutes the data is showing that there is movement between the dialysis bag and the hypotonic water. At this point it was indeterminate as to if the sucrose solution moved into the water by diffusion or not. We noted that the dialysis bag had gained weight at each 15-minute interval. At each interval the weight gain was slightly less from the previous weight gain. The most weight gained was in the first measurement when the gradient was the highest with the weight of the dialysis bag increasing 2.1grams with a 10.16% change. We determined that there was no change in the water clarity in the beaker. We determined that the movement of fluids in and out of the dialysis bag was by osmosis and not by diffusion of the sucrose. Our hypothesis as to the net movement of water by osmosis was correct, conversely, our hypothesis as to the chemical movement by diffusion was incorrect. The weight of the dialysis bag increased at each interval, yet there was no change in the color of the water in the beaker suggesting that there was no diffusion. One possible explanation as to the lack of diffusion would be that the sucrose and red dye concentration were not concentrated enough to be observable. Alternatively, the dialysis bag did not have time to reach a point of equilibrium and become isotonic with the solution in the beaker. Potentially a repeat of this experiment using higher concentrations of red dye and sucrose would achieve different results as to an observable diffusion of chemicals inside the dialysis bag into the beaker of water, it might also have an increase in the osmosis

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