Question

Assume there is a left beaker with solutes, a 100 MWCO membrane, and a right beaker with distilled H₂O. You can choose to put either 5.00mM NaCl or 5.00 mM glucose into the left beaker. Which solution would give you the highest osmotic pressure? Explain in detail.

Answer 1

Answer - Solution with 5.00 mM NaCl will have higher osmotic pressure.

Explanation

Osmotic pressures is a colligative property. It means osmotic pressure depends on the number of solute particles in the solution.

NaCl is a molecule which gets ionized to form Na+ and Cl- is dissolved in distilled water. (NaCl exists as Na+ and Cl- ions in the solution).

Glucose will not get ionized in the solution. Because it is covalent molecule

When NaCl is dissolved in water, as it dissociates into ions, it will produce more number of solute particles in the solution than glucose.
So, NaCl produces greater osmotic pressure than glucose in solution.