The Effects of Size on the Rate of Diffusion

Abstract

A common principle in biology is that some substances can diffuse through semipermeable membranes. We focused out on why some substances diffuse through semipermeable e membrane, dialysis tubing, faster than other substances (French, 2012). Previous works have focused more on the size of the pores as related to the rate of diffusion through a membrane. We decided to test the effects of molecule size on the substance’s ability to diffuse through dialysis. We tested this by putting a set volume of three different solutions into three different sets of dialysis tubing cells and measuring the amount of substance diffused into a beaker of deionized water after a set time. We can use this information that smaller molecule diffuse through dialysis tubing faster to understand the nature of diffusion through dialysis tubing and further future research.