| Abstract: | Osmosis is a phenomenon which regulates many biological functions in plants and animals. That the plants stand upright, or
the water reaches the tip of every leaf of a plant is due to osmotic pressure. The fact that we cannot survive by drinking
seawater is also linked to this same phenomenon. J H van’t Hoff showed in 1886 that osmotic pressure is related to concentration
and temperature of the solution by a law that is similar to the gas law. An understanding of this phenomenon paved the way
not only in explaining the biological functions which depend on osmosis, but also in creating conditions for reversing it
known as ‘reverse osmosis’. Reverse osmosis has many applications, one of which is desalination of seawater. The inaugural
Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to van’t Hoff for his seminal work in this area. The present article explains
the principle of osmosis and reverse osmosis. |
