Diego Civitelli

DETERMINATION OF OSMOLARITY IN POTATO CELLS

Research question: what is the osmolarity inside of a potato cell?
Introduction
Water plays a key role in order for cells to carry out all the functions of life, particularly
in plant cells. Plant cells need water for three main reasons . The first one is that, in order to
perform photosynthesis and grow, plant cells need sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. Thus,
water is an essential element to perform photosynthesis. Plant cells also have a cell wall which
maintains their shape and therefore needs to stay rigid. This is possible thanks to the turgor
pressure that, pressing against the cell wall, keeps it rigid. The turgor pressure is largely affected
by the amount of the water in the cell (usually about 90% of a plant cell is made of water due to
the cytoplasm and the large central vacuole). If the water within the cell is not enough to
maintain the turgor pressure the cell will wilt. The third reason for which plant cells need water
is because it acts as a solvent for the minerals present in the soil and for the substances present in
the plant itself. This allows the chemical reactions to take place and the minerals to be absorbed
from the soil, which would not be otherwise possible since they would be in solid state.
There are different types of diffusion: passive diffusion, facilitated diffusion and osmosis.
The aim of each type of diffusion is to get substances in or out of a cell. In order to do it, different
ways are used, based on the nature of the substance that needs to be transported. Osmosis is a
form of passive diffusion specific to water in which water molecules diffuse through a
semipermeable membrane (either in or out of the cell) from a lower concentration of solute to a
higher concentration of solute. No energy (ATP) is required. When the process of osmosis is
completed, a dynamic equilibrium should be established, meaning that water molecules move in/
out of the membrane but there is no net movement.
One can distinguish three types of solutions, based on the quantity of solute present in
relation to another solution. When the solute and the solvent are equally distributed in both the
solutions we have an isotonic solution in which there is no net movement of water particles. An
hypertonic solution contains a higher concentration of solute than solvent in one of the two
solutions, therefore if a cell is placed in a hypertonic solution it will lose water (net movement out
of the cell). A hypotonic solution contains a higher concentration of solvent molecules than solute
in one of the two solutions. Therefore, if a cell is placed in a hypotonic solution it will gain mass
(net movement into the cell).
The concentration of a solute in a solution can be determined by analyzing the change in
weight of a cell put in the solution.This lab focuses on the concentration of solutes in potato cells.
Osmosis will be replicated by placing identical samples of potato (potato samples will have no

Diego Civitelli

skin and will be significantly smaller than a real potato, 2cm) in six beakers, filled with 100mL of
different concentration of sucrose solutions. The mass of the potato will be compared before and
after having placed them in the different sucrose solutions. In this way, by looking at the change
in mass of the potato, one can be able to determine whether the solutions were hypertonic,
hypotonic or isotonic to the potato samples and therefore find the osmolarity of the potatoes.
Hypothesis: If the potato samples are places in sucrose solutions with different concentrations to
the potato , there will be a change in mass of the potato.
Null hypothesis: If the potato samples are placed in sucrose solutions with different
concentrations to the potato, there will not be a change in mass of the potato.

Diego Civitelli

VARIABLES

Independent-dependent variable and negative control

VARIABLE

DESCRIPTION

DETAILS

Independent variable (IV)

Concentration of sucrose
solution.

Four trials of each of the following

concentrations
1. 0.00 M
2. 0.10 M
3. 0.20 M
4. 0.30 M
5. 0.40 M
6. 0.50 M

Dependent Variable (DV)

percentage mass change in the

cell

It will be calculated by measuring

the mass of the cell before and
after placing it into the sucrose
solutions.
Formula: (final mass - initial mass)
/ initial mass x 100
[data not available for this lab]

Negative control

The negative control is needed to

prove the Null Hypothesis. ( we do
not have a negative control in this
lab)

Placing the potato

samples in no solution.

Constant Variables
Variable

Details

Description

A measuring cylinder was

used to measure the volume.
1. 100 cm3 volume of solution in Moreover, beakers were
each beaker.
covered with a removable
cling that did not let vapor go
in.

The volume of the solution

has to be the same in order
to make sure that only the
concentration of sucrose will
affect the final data.

2. Diameter of potato chips

A cork borer was used to cut

the potato chips samples

SA : vol ratio affects the rate

of osmosis.

3. Length of potato chips

2 cm length was measured

SA : vol ratio affects the rate
with a ruler. The potato sample
of osmosis.
was then cut using a scalpel.

4. Time

All the potato samples were

immersed and pull out at the
same time. A stopwatch was
used in order to make sure
that the time given to the
beakers was right.

Time has to be controlled in

order to obtain fair data; if a
beaker was given more
time, the data would be
wrong since more transfer of
water will occur.

5. size of the beakers

six 250mL beakers were

used for this experiment.

Diego Civitelli

Uncontrolled Variables
Variable

Description

1. Temperature

Uncontrolled by the environment

2. Pressure

3. Humidity

4. Light exposure