Question

What happens if a de-shelled egg is kept in saline water?

Answer 1

De-shelled eggs lose their hard outer shell covering and thus possess a thin, outer covering. This outer covering is responsible for the movement of solvent particles from a place of lower concentration to a higher concentration of solvent.

Complete Step by Step Answer:
De-shelled eggs have a thin semi-permeable membrane around them. Through the semipermeable membrane, the water molecules inside the egg undergo the osmosis process. We know that saline water {salt water} is a hypertonic solution (high solute concentration). Thus, the semi-permeable membrane undergoes exosmosis, and the egg shrinks due to the loss of water through the membrane to the outer environment.

Additional information: If the water concentration inside is higher than the surrounding environment, the medium is said to be a hypertonic solution. In this case, the number of water molecules diffusing out due to exosmosis will be more than the molecules entering the cell. The egg shrinks due to the movement of the water molecules to the external environment, i.e. the saline water. This water molecule reduces the concentration of the solute particles in the saline water, thus achieving the state of equilibrium.osmosis is the process where the solvent molecules move from to the place of higher concentration of solute, in order to attain equilibrium on both sides.

Note: De-shelled eggs can be prepared by immersing the egg in dilute HCL acid for 10 hours thus the hard covering is dissolved by the acid and the egg is surrounded by a thin membrane. The presence of semi-permeable membranes is the reason for osmosis to occur. As the outer environment(saline water) is high in concentration, the process undergoing here is the exosmosis, and the water molecules from inside the egg transport to the outside environment to obtain the equilibrium balance.