Explain the Donnan Membrane Equilibrium?
If one of the solutions in a two-phase membrane equilibrium contains certain charged solute species that are unable to pass through the membrane, whereas other ions can pass through, the situation is more complicated than the osmotic membrane equilibrium. Usually if the membrane is impermeable to one kind of ion, an ion species to which it is permeable achieves transfer equilibrium across the membrane only when the phases have different pressures and different electric potentials. The equilibrium state in this case is a Donnan membrane equilibrium, and the resulting electric potential difference across the membrane is called the Donnan potential. This phenomenon is related to the membrane potentials that are important in the functioning of nerve and muscle cells (although the cells of a living organism are not, of course, in equilibrium states). A Donnan potential can be measured electrically, with some uncertainty due to unknown liquid junction potentials, by connecting silver-silver chloride electrodes to both phases through salt bridges.