Differentially Permeable Membranes

The Dialysis (Visking) tube is a synthetic, semi-permeable membrane and provides a very good means to demonstrate some of the properties of differentially permeable membranes in living cells. The aim of the experiment was to find about what was dialysis tubing, what it is used for and to create hypothesis that we will later had to see if we were right or wrong. Hypothesis: 1. The aceto-orcein will come out of the dialysis (visking) tube, into the beaker containing a solution of 1% sodium sulphate solution. In the experiment some of the aceto-orcein managed to pass from the inside of the tube into the beaker. The cuantity of the acetoorcein inside the beaker was about 2/10. 2. Sodium chloride will come out of the tube. In the results we collected they were chloride ions present because silver nitrate reacted to the chloride ions forming white precipitate. 3. Sodium sulphate will enter the tube. After we emptied the content of the tube into another beaker and added two drops of barium chloride to the six drops of the solution, white precipitate formed proving that the sodium sulphate entered the tube. 4. Starch will not come out of the tube. We added two drops of potassium iodide to a small amount of sodium sulphate solution. If starch was present in the tube, the solution would have turned blue-black, however the solution didnt turn blue-black proving our hypothesis right.