CBSE Class 10 Answered

Osmosis is the diffusion of water through a cell wall or membrane or any partially-permeable barrier from a solution of low solute concentration (high water potential) to a solution with high solute concentration (low water potential), up a solute concentration gradient. It is a physical process in which a solvent moves, without input of energy, across a semi-permeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations.^[1] Osmosis releases energy, and can be made to do work, as when a growing tree-root splits a stone

Reverse osmosis is a separation process that uses pressure to force a solvent through a membrane that retains the solute on one side and allows the pure solvent to pass to the other side. More formally, it is the process of forcing a solvent from a region of high solute concentration through a membrane to a region of low solute concentration by applying a pressure in excess of the osmotic pressure.Osmosis may be used directly to achieve separation of water from a "feed" solution containing unwanted solutes. A "draw" solution of higher osmotic pressure than the feed solution is used to induce a net flow of water through a semi-permeable membrane, such that the feed solution becomes concentrated as the draw solution becomes dilute. The diluted draw solution may then be used directly (as with an ingestible solute like glucose), or sent to a secondary separation process for the removal of the draw soluteThe inward flow of a fluid through a permeable membrane toward a fluid of greater concentration is endosmosis.

The passage of a fluid through a semipermeable membrane toward a solution of lower concentration, especially the passage of water through a cell membrane into the surrounding medium is exosmosis