Lab Report Osmosis

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Discussion: Osmosis is a process in which water diffuses through a selectively permeable membrane from a low solute concentration to a high solute concentration. This lab shows the rate of osmosis between three different solute concentrations placed in water. The purpose of the dialysis tube placed in the graduated cylinder was to imitate a cell placed in its exterior environment. In this experiment, it was hypothesized that if the concentration of a solute is correlated to the rate of osmosis, then increasing the solute concentration gradient across the membrane will cause a faster rate of osmosis. The solution that had the lowest concentration gradient was 1% sucrose which resulted in having a negative rate of osmosis of -0.08 g/min. This…show more content…
The reason that these two solutions had a greater rate of osmosis compared to the dialysis tube with a concentration of 1% sucrose was because the increase of concentration resulted in a greater movement of water, which increased both the osmotic pressure, and the rate of osmosis. A possibility as to why the dialysis tubes with 10% sucrose and 40% sucrose had the same rate of osmosis could be a result of an experimental error. From the results, it can also be interpreted that all three solute concentrations were placed in a hypotonic solution. There was more water in the graduated cylinder compared to the dialysis tube, which forced the water to enter through the selectively permeable membrane, which lead to the solution…show more content…
The sample calculations show that the solution with the concentration of 1% sucrose has a lower rate of osmosis than the solutions with the concentrations of 10% sucrose and 40% sucrose. The fact that the solute concentration with 1% sucrose had a rate of osmosis of -0.08 g/min supports the hypothesis of this lab. The concentration gradient between the cell and its exterior environment, which in this experiment was the sucrose solution and the water in the graduated cylinder, was already close to equilibrium because it was diluted. This resulted in not as many water molecules being compelled to diffuse into the cell, therefore giving results that directly reflect the hypothesis of this experiment. However, the difference between the solutions with the solute concentrations of 10% sucrose and 40% sucrose is 30%, which means the results should have presented a faster rate of osmosis for the solution with 40% sucrose compared to the solution with 10% sucrose. The sample calculations present both solute concentrations to possess the same rate of osmosis of 0.08 g/min, which does not directly reflect what was hypothesized of this experiment. As osmosis proceeds through a selectively permeable membrane, pressure is built up towards the side of the membrane that water is moving into.

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