Date:

Title: transport system

Topic: osmosis
Aim: To investigate the effect of a range of concentrations of salt solutions on the mass of plant
tissue.

Equipments/Materials:  a Potato, a cork borer or potato chipper/ vegetable stick cutter, a 10 cm3
measuring cylinder, labels, three boiling tubes, a test tube rack, paper towels, a sharp knife, a
white tile, a range of salt solutions (1.0M - 0.25 M), distilled water

● a top-pan balance (accurate to at least 0.01 Take a leaf

Procedure:

Step 1- a cork borer was used to cut five pieces of potato cylinder of the same diameter.

Step 2- the cylinders were trimmed so that they could all be the same length which is (3cm).

Step 3- the mass of each potato cylinders were accurately measured and recorded.

Step 4- 10.3cm3 of the 1.0m salt solution was measured and placed into the first boiling tube and
was labeled as tube 1.0m salt.

Step 5- step 4 was repeated to produce the additional labeled boiling tubes which contained
solution of 0.75m, 0.5m and 0.25m.

Step 6- 10cm3 of distilled water was measured and placed in the fifth boiling tube, which was
labeled as water.

Step 7- one potato cylinder was added to each boiling tube. The mass of each potato cylinder was
measured before placed in each boiling tube.

Step 8- each potato cylinder mass was recorded in a table.

Step 9- potato cylinders were left in each boiling tube for 30minutes in a test tube rack.

Step 10- the cylinders were removed from the boiling tubes and were carefully blot to dry with
paper towel.

Step 11- the mass of each cylinder was measured. Measurements were recorded on a table and
the changes in mass of each potato cylinder were calculated.
Step 12- a graph was plotted- a. change in mass in g on the y-axis. b. showing Concentration of
salt solution’ on the x-axis.

Result/observation-

1.0 mol/dm3 0.75 0.25

0.5 mol/dm3 Distilled
salt solution mol/dm3 mol/dm3 salt
salt solution water
salt solution solution

Initial mass(g) 6.08 5.97 6.10 5.92 5.98

Final mass in (g) 4.05 3.82 4.00 4.45 6.48

Change in mass in −2.03 −2.15

−2.10 −1.47 +0.05
(g)
Percentage -33.4 -36.0
-34.4 -24.8 +8.3
change in mass

Discussion: osmosis is the movement of water from an area of low concentrated solution to an
area of high concentrated solution through a partially permeable membrane. A partially
permeable membrane is a membrane that has tiny holes in it which allows small molecules to
pass through it but not large molecules. An example of this is a cell membrane. Plant cells can
take on lots of water because of the tough cell wall which resists bursting. When plant cells lose
lots of water they become plasmolysed- the vacuole pulls away from the cell membrane. This
does not shrink the overall cell. In the salt solution 1.0m there is a high concentration of water in
the cell and a low concentration of water out of the cell. Therefore osmosis will take place by
diffusing the water out of the cell of the potato in the concentrated salt solution; the potato in this
solution will become flaccid (it will shrink). This happened because the water concentration
outside the plant cell was low, so the water in the plant cell diffuses by osmosis through the
partially permeable cell membrane out the cell. This draws water away from the permanent
vacuole and causes it to shrink and pull in the cell wall. In the salt solution of 0.25 there was a
high concentration of water out of the cell and a lower concentration of water in the cell.
However osmosis took place by diffusing the water into the cell, making the cell become turgid
(swollen). This happened because there was a high concentration of water outside of the plant
cell, so the water will diffuse by osmosis through the partially permeable membrane into the cell
of the plant. The additional water is stored in the permanent vacuole. This causes the vacuole to
press against the cell wall, distorting its shape. In distilled water nothing will happen because the
concentration in and out of the cell is equal.

Conclusion: it can be concluded that the range of concentrations of salt solutions affects the mass
of plants.