© Mr.

Suman Neerukonda
© Mr. Suman Neerukonda
© Mr. Suman Neerukonda
🔥Cells need food materials which they can oxidize for energy or use to build
up their cell structures.
🔥They also need salts and water, which play a part in chemical reactions in
the cell.
🔥 Finally, they need to get rid of substances such as carbon dioxide, which,
if they accumulated in the cell, would upset some of the chemical
reactions or even poison the cell.
🔥Substances may pass through the cell membrane either passively by
diffusion or actively by some form of active transport.
 Diffusion is the net movement of molecules and ions from a
region of their higher concentration to a region of their lower
concentration down a concentration gradient, as a result of
their random movement.
 Molecules in gases move about in a random way.
 They bump into one another and spread out to fill up all the
space available.
 Molecules in a liquid do this as well, although it takes longer for
them to fill the space.
 Movement in a gas is faster as the molecules are more spread
out.
 The difference in speed between movement in gases and liquids
is important for organisms.
 This movement of molecules is called diffusion.
When molecules or ions diffuse they spread out from where there
are lots of them in a given volume (a high concentration) to where
there are not as many of them (a low concentration).
The difference between the concentration of molecules in two places
is a concentration gradient.
 Molecules carry on diffusing until they are spread out evenly.
When this happens the molecules keep moving, but there is no
longer a difference in concentrations so diffusion has stopped.

Diffusion in a gas.
Molecules of a colored gas spread out through the
container
Diffusion is the net movement of molecules or ions from a region of high
concentration to a region of lower concentration down a concentration gradient.
Cells gain some of the substances they need by diffusion from their surroundings.
They also lose some of their waste substances to their surroundings by diffusion.
These substances have to cross cell membranes that are partially permeable as
they allow the movement of small molecules such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and
water to pass through easily, but not larger molecules.
The movement of molecules by diffusion across cell membranes is passive
movement as cells do not need to use energy to move the molecules.

Diffusion in a liquid
The energy for diffusion comes from the kinetic energy
of random movement of molecules and ions.
The more molecules present, the greater their kinetic
energy and therefore their rate of movement.
The speed with which a substance diffuses through a cell
wall or cell membrane will depend on temperature and
many other conditions including the distance it has to
diffuse, the difference between its concentration inside
and outside the cell, the size of its molecules or ions and
the surface area across which the diffusion is occurring.
The greater the surface area, the faster is the total
diffusion. © Mr. Suman Neerukonda
 Factors that affect diffusion
These factors influence the efficiency of diffusion
• The distance molecules have to travel — note that cell membranes are
very thin.
• The concentration gradient — cells use the substances that diffuse as
quickly as possible, so they keep a low concentration inside the cytoplasm.
• This means that molecules keep diffusing into the cell because the cell is
maintaining a steep concentration gradient.
• The surface area — some cells have cell membranes that are folded to
give a large surface to allow many molecules to cross by diffusion.
• The temperature — molecules move faster and collide more often as the
temperature increases. Diffusion is faster at warmer temperatures.
Living organisms obtain many of their requirements by
diffusion.
They also get rid of many of their waste products in
this way.
 For example, plants need carbon dioxide for
photosynthesis.
This diffuses from the air into the leaves, through the
stomata.
 It does this because there is a lower concentration of
carbon dioxide inside the leaf, as the cells are using it
up.
 Outside the leaf in the air, there is a higher
concentration.
Carbon dioxide molecules therefore diffuse into
the leaf, down this concentration gradient.
Oxygen, which is a waste product of
photosynthesis, diffuses out in the same way.
There is a higher concentration of oxygen inside
the leaf, because it is being made there.
Oxygen therefore diffuses out through the
stomata into the air.
 Diffusion is also important in gas
exchange for respiration in animals and
plants.
 Cell membranes are freely permeable to oxygen
and carbon dioxide, so these easily diffuse into
and out of cells.
 Some of the products of digestion are absorbed
from the ileum of mammals by diffusion.
🍀A solution is made up of two parts,
the solute and the solvent.
🍀The solute dissolves in the solvent.
🍀If you dissolve sugar in water you
make a sugar solution.
🍀The sugar is the solute and the water
is the solvent.
🍀The solute is not always a solid like
sugar.
🍀Liquids and gases can be solutes as
they can dissolve in solvents too.
🍀Something which dissolves in a
solvent is described as being soluble.
🍀Water is sometimes called the universal solvent.
🍀 About 75% of cytoplasm is water and it is the main component of
transport fluids like blood, and xylem sap and phloem sap in plants.
🍀Everything transported in plants and animals has to dissolve in
water and most of the chemical reactions that occur in cells happen
in water.
🍀 Also, water is needed for digestion and excretion to take place.
 © Mr. Suman Neerukonda

🍄Mineral ions in solution, such as nitrates and magnesium, are

thought to diffuse across the tissues of plant roots, but most are
absorbed into the roots by active transport.
🍄In the ileum, water-soluble vitamins such as vitamin B and vitamin C
are absorbed into the bloodstream by diffusion.
🍄In the kidneys, some solutes in the renal capsule, such as urea and
salts, pass back into the bloodstream by diffusion. Initially, glucose is
reabsorbed by diffusion, but active transport is also involved.
If a dilute solution is separated from a concentrated solution by a partially
permeable membrane, water diffuses across the membrane from the dilute to the
concentrated solution.
❤Each cell is surrounded by a cell membrane.
❤It separates the contents of the cell from the
outside.
❤The cell membrane has tiny holes in it which
allows small molecules to pass through but not
large ones.
❤ The cell membrane is described as being partially
permeable.

Osmosis is essential in biological systems, as

biological membranes are semipermeable.
❤Osmosis is a special kind of diffusion involving water molecules.
❤ It occurs when two solutions are separated by a partially permeable
membrane.
❤Osmosis is the diffusion of water from a dilute solution into a
more concentrated solution through a partially permeable
membrane.
💕The tiny holes in the membrane allow small water molecules to pass
through, but the large solute molecules are too big to pass through
the partially permeable membrane.
💕Water is diffusing from a place where there is a dilute solution with a
high concentration of water to a place where there is a concentrated
solution with a low concentration of water.

Water will diffuse from the dilute solution to the concentrated solution through the partially permeable
membrane. As a result, the liquid level will rise on the left and fall on the right.
Osmosis is the movement of water from an area of high water concentration to an area
of lower water concentration through a selectively permeable membrane.
💕Water potential is a way of thinking about the ability of water to move by osmosis.
💕This is influenced by how much water is available, but also by other factors such as
pressure exerted on the water in plant cells by the cell wall.
💕It is more accurate to say that a dilute solution (containing a lot of water molecules)
has a high water potential.
💕A concentrated solution (containing fewer water molecules) has a low water potential.
💕Water potential is the 'measure of the ability of water
molecules to move freely in solution'.
💕All this means is that is a solution of pure water where there is
no solute, all of the water molecules are free to move, so the
water potential is high.
💕 If a solute is added to the solution, it is attracted to the water
molecules, so those water molecules can no longer move freely and
the water potential is lower.
✳ In the diagram there is a water potential
gradient between the two sides of the
membrane.
✳ The water molecules diffuse down this
water potential gradient, from a region
of high water potential to a region of
lower water potential through a partially
permeable membrane.
✳ Water molecules are free to move
through the membrane in both
directions by kinetic energy.
✳ However, since there are many more
water molecules present on the left hand
side, there will be a net movement of
water molecules through the membrane
from left to right, down the water
potential gradient.
 The cell membrane of the plant cell is
partially permeable and the cell sap
inside the vacuole is a solution of salts
and sugars.
 When plant cells are placed in water, the
water enters the cells.
 This is because there is a water potential
gradient so that water molecules diffuse
into the cells by osmosis.
♻As water enters it makes the cell swell up.

♻The water pushes against the cell wall

developing a turgor pressure.

♻Eventually the cell contains as much water as

it can hold.

♻It's like a blown-up balloon.

♻The strong cell wall stops the cell bursting.

♻We say that the cell is turgid.
🛑Turgid cells give the plant support.

🛑They keep the stems of many plants upright.

🛑This is because the cells within a stem are supported by

turgor pressure.

🛑The water pressure within the cell acts against the

inelastic cell walls, keeping the cells turgid and firm.

🛑 However, when these cells lose water, they are no

longer firm and turgid.

🛑Plant stems and leaves that have lost water wilt.

Turgid Cell
Plasmolysis

The shrinking
of protoplasm away from
the cell wall of
a plant or bacterium due
to water loss
from osmosis, thereby
resulting in gaps between
the cell wall and cell
membrane.

© Mr. Suman Neerukonda

If red blood cells are placed in a
solution with lower solute
concentration than is found in
the cells, water moves into the
cells by osmosis, causing the cells
to swell and eventually burst
Osmosis and animal cell
✤ Plants rely on osmosis to obtain water through their roots.
✤ Usually, the water in the soil is more dilute than that in root hair cells, So
water enters root hair cells by osmosis.
✤ When young plants lose more water than they gain, cells become flaccid and the plant
wilts.
✤ This means, in order for water to diffuse through plant cells, the water potential
gradient has to be maintained – plant cells must have a lower water potential than its
surrounding environment.