1.1. A thin layer of some solution is inserted into a long column of water.

One hour later the concentration of the

solute is 100 mol m-3 (0.1 M) at the plane of insertion and 37 mol m-3 (0.037 M) at a distance 3 mm away.
A. What is its diffusion coefficient?
B. When the concentration 90 mm away is 37% of the value at the plane of insertion, how much time has elapsed?
C. How many moles of solute per unit area were initially inserted into the column of water?
D. Suppose that a trace amount of a substance having a diffusion coefficient 100 times smaller than that of the main
solute was also initially introduced. For the time in B, where would its concentration drop to 1/e of the value at the
plane of insertion?
1.2. Let us suppose that mitochondria with a volume of 0.30 μm3 each and a density of 1110 kg m-3 (1.10 g cm-3)
diffuse like a chemical species.
A. What is the “molecular weight” of mitochondria?
B. Suppose that a chemically similar species of molecular weight 200 has a diffusion coefficient of 0.5 x 10-9 m2/s.
If diffusion coefficients are inversely proportional to the cube root of molecular weights for this series of similar
species, what is Dmitochondria?
C. If we assume that Equation 1.6 can adequately describe such motion, how long would it take on the average for a
mitochondrion to diffuse 0.2 μm (a distance just discernible using a light microscope)? How long would it take for
the mitochondrion to diffuse 50 μm (the distance across a typical leaf cell)?
D. If DATP is 0.3 x 10-9 m2/s, how long would it take ATP to diffuse 50 μm? Is it more expedient for mitochondria
or ATP to diffuse across a cell?
1.3. Suppose that an unstirred air layer 1 mm thick is adjacent to a guard cell with a cell wall 2 μm thick.
A. Assume that an (infinitely) thin layer of 14CO2 is introduced at the surface of the guard cell. If DCO2 is 106 times
larger in air than in the cell wall, what are the relative times for 14CO2 to diffuse across the two barriers?
B. If it takes 14CO2 just as long to cross an 8-nm-thick plasma membrane as it does to cross the cell wall, what are
the relative sizes of the two diffusion coefficients (assume that the 14CO2 was introduced in a plane
between the two barriers)?
C. Assuming that the partition coefficient for CO2 is 100 times greater in the cell wall than in the plasma membrane,
in which barrier is the permeability coefficient larger, and by how much?
1.4. Without correcting for the effect of an unstirred layer 20 μm thick outside a membrane 7.5 nm in thickness, the
apparent (total) permeability coefficients were measured to be 1.0 x 10-4 m/s for D2O, 2.0 x 10-5 m/s for methanol,
and 3.0 x 10-8 m/s for L-leucine. For barriers in series, the overall permeability coefficient for species j (ptotal j ) is
related to those of the individual barriers (pij) as follows: 1/ptotalj = Σi 1/Pij . For purposes of calculation, we will
assume that in the present case the unstirred layer on the inner side of the membrane is negligibly thin.
A. What is Pj for the external unstirred layer for each of the compounds?
Assume that DD2O is 2.6 x 10-9 m2/s, Dmethanol is 0.80 x 10-9 m2/s, and Dleucine is 0.20 x 10-9 m2/s in water at 25⁰C.
B. What are the permeability coefficients of the three compounds for the membrane?
C. From the results in A and B, what are the main barriers for the diffusion of the three compounds in this case?
D. What are the highest possible values at 25⁰C of Ptotal j for each of the three compounds moving across an
unstirred layer of 20 μm and an extremely permeable membrane in series?
1.5. Consider a solute having a permeability coefficient of 10 -6 m/s for the plasma membrane of a cylindrical Chara
cell that is 100 mm long and 1 mm in diameter. Assume that its concentration remains essentially uniform within the
cell.
A. How much time would it take for 90% of the solute to diffuse out into a large external solution initially devoid of
that substance?
B. How much time would it take if diffusion occurred only at the two ends of the cell?
C. How would the times calculated inAand B change for 99% of the solute to diffuse out?
D. How would the times change if Pj were 10-8 m/s?
1.6. A cylindrical Nitella cell is 100 mm long and 1 mm in diameter, a spherical Valonia cell is 10 mm in diameter,
and a spherical Chlorella cell is 4 μm in diameter.
A. What is the area/volume in each case?
B. Which cell has the largest amount of surface area per unit volume?
C. If it takes 1 s for the internal concentration of ethanol, which is initially absent from the cells, to reach half of the
external concentration for Chlorella, how long would it take for Nitella and Valonia? Assume that Pethanol is the same
for all of the cells.
D. Assume that the cell walls are equal in thickness. For a given internal pressure, which cell would have the highest
cell wall stress (consider only the lateral wall for Nitella)?