Osmotic pressure

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Osmotic pressure is the minimum pressure which needs to be applied to a solution to prevent the inward flow of its pure solvent across a semipermeable membrane. Potential osmotic pressure is the maximum osmotic pressure that could develop in a solution if it was not separated from its pure solvent by a semipermeable membrane. It is the difference between hydrostatic pressures of the solution and the pure solvent. Osmosis occurs when two solutions containing different concentrations of solute are separated by a selectively permeable membrane. Solvent molecules pass preferentially through the membrane from the low-concentration solution to the solution with higher solute concentration. The transfer of solvent molecules continues until osmotic equilibrium is attained.

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