Calculate the osmotic pressure of seawater containing 3.5 wt % NaCl at 25 °C . If reverse osmosis is applied to treat seawater, and 50% of the water is required to be recycled or filtered , calculate the highest osmotic pressure the membrane may experience . S ince NaCl dissociates into two ions, the value of the van’t Hoff factor here is 2.

Highest osmotic pressure that membrane may experience is

' =58.638 atm

Explanation:

Suppose sea-water taken is M= 1 kg

Density of water = 1000 kg/m3

Therefore Volume of water= Mass,M/Density of water

V= 1 kg/(1000 kg/m3)

V= 10-3 m3= 1 Litre

Since mass of Nacl is 3.5 wt%,Therefore in 1 kg of water

Mass present of NaCl= m= 0.035*1000 g

m= 35 g

Since molecular weight of NaCl= 58.44 g/mol =M.W.

Thus its Number of moles of Nacl= m/M.W

nNaCl= 35g/58.44 gmol-1

= 0.5989 mol

ans since volume of solution is 1 L thus concentration of NaCl is ,C= number of moles/Volume of solution in Litres

C= 0.5989mol/ 1L

=0.5989 M

Since 1 mol NaCL disssociates to form 2 moles of ions of Na+ andCl- Thus van't hoff factor i=2

And osmotic pressure  = iCRT (1)( Where R= 0.0821 L.atm/mol.K and T= 25oC= 298.15 K)

Putting in equation 1 ,we get  = 2*(0.5989 mol/L)*(0.0821 L.atm/mol.K)*298.15 K

=29.319 atm

Now as the water gets filtered out of the membrane,the water's volume decreases and concentration C of NacL increases, thus osmotic pressure also increases.Thus, at 50% water been already filtered out, the osmotic pressure at the membrane will be maximum

Thus Volume of water left after 50% is filtered out as fresh water= 0.5 L (assuming no salt passes through semi permeable membrane)

Thus New concentration of NaCl C'= 2*C

C'=2*0.5989 M

=1.1978 M

and Since Osmotic pressure is directly proportional to concentration, Thus As concentration C doubles to C', Osmotic Pressure  ' also doubles from  ,

Thus,Highest osmotic pressure that membrane may experience is,  '=2*  

=2*29.319 atm

' =58.638 atm

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