The 

cell membrane
A thin membrane, typically between 4 and 10 nanometers (nm; 1 nm = 10−9 metre) in
thickness, surrounds every living cell, delimiting the cell from the environment around
it. Enclosed by this cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane) are the
cell’s constituents, often large, water-soluble, highly charged molecules such
as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and substances involved in
cellular metabolism. Outside the cell, in the surrounding water-based environment,
are ions, acids, and alkalis that are toxic to the cell, as well as nutrients that the cell must
absorb in order to live and grow. The cell membrane, therefore, has two functions: first,
to be a barrier keeping the constituents of the cell in and unwanted substances out and,
second, to be a gate allowing transport into the cell of essential nutrients and movement
from the cell of waste products.

Internal membranes
The presence of internal membranes distinguishes eukaryotic cells (cells with a nucleus)
from prokaryotic cells (those without a nucleus). Prokaryotic cells are small (one to five
micrometres in length) and contain only a single cell membrane; metabolic functions
are often confined to different patches of the membrane rather than to areas in the body
of the cell. Typical eukaryotic cells, by contrast, are much larger, the cell
membrane constituting only 10 percent or less of the total cellular membrane. Metabolic
functions in these cells are carried out in the organelles, compartments sequestered
from the cell body, or cytoplasm, by internal membranes.

General functions and characteristics

Like the cell membrane, membranes of some organelles contain transport proteins,
or permeases, that allow chemical communication between organelles. Permeases in the
lysosomal membrane, for example, allow amino acids generated inside the lysosome to
cross into the cytoplasm, where they can be used for the synthesis of new proteins.
Communication between organelles is also achieved by the membrane budding
processes of endocytosis and exocytosis, which are essentially the same as in the cell
membrane (see above Transport across the membrane). On the other hand, the
biosynthetic and degradative processes taking place in different organelles may require
conditions greatly different from those of other organelles or of the cytosol (the fluid
part of the cell surrounding the organelles). Internal membranes maintain these
different conditions by isolating them from one another. For example, the internal space
of lysosomes is much more acidic than that of the cytosol—pH 5 as opposed to pH 7—
and is maintained by specific proton-pumping transport proteins in the lysosome
membrane.
(Source: Brittanica.com)