Explain the Membrane Equilibria?
A semipermeable membrane used to separate two liquid phases can, in principle, be permeable to certain species and impermeable to others. A membrane, however, may not be perfect in this respect over a long time period. We will assume that during the period of observation, those species to which the membrane is supposed to be permeable quickly achieve transfer equilibrium, and only negligible amounts of the other species are transferred across the membrane. A derivation of the conditions needed for equilibrium in a two- phase system in which a membrane permeable only to solvent separates a solution from pure solvent. We can generalize the results for any system with two liquid phases separated by a semi permeable membrane: in an equilibrium state, both phases must have the same temperature, and any species to which the membrane is permeable must have the same chemical potential in both phases. The two phases, however, need not and usually do not have the same pressure.