The Effect of Concentration of Sucrose Solution on Potato Cells

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Water potential is a measure of the amount of free kinetic energy of water molecules in a solution. Osmosis is described as the movement of water molecules from a higher water potential to a lower water potential across a selectively permeable membrane. The solute potential of a cell or solution lowers the amount of free kinetic energy that the water molecules possess ie. Lowers the water potential. As the concentration of sucrose solution increased the solute potential of the solution also became more negative. This means there are more sucrose molecules in the solution. The sucrose molecules attract the water molecules which form hydration channels around the sucrose molecule so the water molecules no longer have free kinetic energy causing the potential to decrease this explains why less water moves into the plant tissues by osmosis. After a certain point the water potential of the sucrose solution becomes lower than the water potential of the plant tissue and this means the water molecules will move out of the plant tissue you and into the sucrose solution which explains why the average percentage change in mass goes from positive values to negative values. For the potato, at 0.0M of sucrose solution the water potential of the potato cells was lower than the water potential of the sucrose solution so the water molecules moved into the potato cells by osmosis across the selectively permeable membrane and this causes the mass of the potato to increase. At 0.1M of sucrose solution the water potential of the potato cells was still lower than the water potential of the sucrose solution so the water molecules moved into the potato cells by osmosis across the selectively permeable membrane and this causes the mass of the potato to increase. The difference in the water potentials of the potato cells and the sucrose solution at 0.1M is less than at 0.0M and this explains

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