Osmotic Pressure and its Influence on the Concentration of Sucrose in Solution
Brennan Montoni
Movement of molecules and Ions
Names of Lab Partners
Biology 110
March 23, 2011
Code of Academic Integrity
INTRODUCTION:
During the process of osmosis, water will move across a differentially permeable membrane. The water will transfer from a region of lesser solute concentration to a region of greater solute concentration. While water is able to pass through the membrane, other substances are blocked (Hershey et. al. 2010). There are three types of conditions that the solutions will experience. These conditions include hypotonic, hypertonic, and isotonic. Hypotonic describes the movement of the solution going from a high level of concentration to a lower level of concentration. On the other hand, a solution is hypertonic when the movement of the solution goes from a low level of concentration to a higher level of concentration. When a solution is isotonic, rather than experiencing movement between two solutions of different concentrations, the solute concentration on either side of the plasma membrane is equal (Hershey et. al. 2010).
During this lab, we had to observe and record the effect of osmosis across a non-living membrane. Using different concentrations of tap water and sucrose, the group filled a series of six dialysis tubes each having different concentrations. Of the six dialysis tubes, two of them were filled with tap water only, two were filled with 20% sucrose, and two were filled with 40% sucrose. We then gathered six beakers and filled three of them with water, one with 20% sucrose, and two with 40% sucrose. Each beaker would then have a dialysis tube added it. Of each beaker filled with just water, one received a tube with just water, one received a tube with 20% sucrose, and one received a tube with 40% sucrose. For the beaker with 20% sucrose, we added a tube
Cited: Hershey et al 2010, Section 6, Exercise C, of the Twelfth Edition of the Biology 110 Laboratory Textbook