The size of a raw mango shrinks to a much smaller size when kept in a concentrated salt solution. Which one of the following processes can explain this?

Solution

Chemistry ma’am · 4 steps

Water leaves the mango for the saltier side, through the skin, all on its own: that is osmosis.

1. Two solutions. The cell sap inside the mango is a dilute solution. The salt solution outside is much more concentrated.
2. Semipermeable skin. The mango skin and cell membranes act as a semipermeable membrane. Water molecules can pass through, but the dissolved salt and sugars largely cannot.
3. Direction of flow. Solvent always moves on its own from the dilute side to the concentrated side. So water flows out of the mango into the salt solution, and the mango shrinks. This spontaneous flow of solvent through a semipermeable membrane is osmosis.
4. So. The shrinking is explained by osmosis, option (a).

The idea to keep. In osmosis only the solvent moves, from dilute to concentrated, by itself. If no external pressure is pushing it, it is not reverse osmosis.

Answer from the NTA final answer key. Solution by PrepWiser.