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Chemical diffusion occurs in a presence of concentration (or chemical potential) gradient and it results in net transport of mass. This is the process described by the diffusion equation. This diffusion is always a non-equilibrium process, increases the system entropy, and brings the system closer to equilibrium.
Scheme of molecular diffusion in the solution. Orange dots are solute molecules, solvent molecules are not drawn, black arrow is an example random walk trajectory, and the red curve is the diffusive Gaussian broadening probability function from the Fick's law of diffusion. [12]:Fig. 9
Prokaryotes are able to subsist by allowing materials to enter the cell via simple diffusion. Intracellular transport is more specialized than diffusion; it is a multifaceted process which utilizes transport vesicles. Transport vesicles are small structures within the cell consisting of a fluid enclosed by a lipid bilayer that hold cargo. These ...
"Bulk flow" is the movement/flow of an entire body due to a pressure gradient (for example, water coming out of a tap). "Diffusion" is the gradual movement/dispersion of concentration within a body with no net movement of matter. An example of a process where both bulk motion and diffusion occur is human breathing. [2]
Diffusion imaging is an MRI method that produces in vivo magnetic resonance images of biological tissues sensitized with the local characteristics of molecular diffusion, generally water (but other moieties can also be investigated using MR spectroscopic approaches). [15] MRI can be made sensitive to the motion of molecules.
As mentioned above, passive diffusion is a spontaneous phenomenon that increases the entropy of a system and decreases the free energy. [5] The transport process is influenced by the characteristics of the transport substance and the nature of the bilayer. The diffusion velocity of a pure phospholipid membrane will depend on: concentration ...
These charged particles require ion pumps or ion channels to cross membranes and distribute through the body. Most of the enzymes that perform this type of transport are transmembrane ATPases. A primary ATPase universal to all animal life is the sodium-potassium pump, which helps to maintain the cell potential.
Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.