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I have been asked to investigate how a manufacturer of frozen chips could increase their profit margin. I have been told that frozen chips are sold by weight, therefore I have to find a way to increase a frozen chips weight without increasing the manufacturing cost by any significant amount. One way to do this would be to increase the concentration of water within the potato chips. I have investigated what scientific information might be useful and found that water can diffuse across a potatoes membrane from a dilute solution to a more concentrated solution by a process called osmosis. According to Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 8, osmosis is The flow of water by diffusion through a differently permeable membrane from areas of high water concentration to areas of low water concentration. The diagram below shows this To get heavier potato chips, the water has to enter the potato chips through osmosis. All plant cell membranes are differentially permeable, which means that they will allow some substances through and not others. Water can freely penetrate all membranes. Using this information we know that we can increase the weight of a potato chip through osmosis, however we want to maximise the increase in weight, so we have to consider what factors affect the rate of osmosis. One factor is the water concentration of the solution you add to the potato chip. When a substance, such as sugar, dissolves in water, the sugar molecules attract water molecules and combine with them. The water molecules now combined with sugar molecules are no longer free to move and so the effective concentration of free water molecules in this solution has been reduced. The more sugar molecules there are in a solution, the more water molecules will be tied upö. In other words, the more concentrated a solution is, the fewer free water molecules it will contain. The two diagrams below show this The diagram below shows a dilute sugar solution separated from a concentrated sugar solution by a thin membrane. The membrane prevents the solutions mixing freely but allows individual water molecules and sugar molecules to pass through. There are free water molecules on the left than on the right and so the water molecules will pass more rapidly through the membrane from the left to the right than from the right to the left. The effect water concentration has on osmosis through a plant cell can be shown by a simple experiment, you take three small pieces from the inner epidermis of an onion bulb scale, and place one in each of the following solutions Distilled water, a 0.5 M sucrose solution, and a 1 M sucrose solution. After 15 minutes you place each piece of tissue on a microscope slide in the same solution in which it has been removed. Cover each with a cover slip and examine with the highest power of a microscope. Below is a drawing and explanation of what is seen. This experiment shows that the higher the water concentration of the solution a cell is immersed in, the more water will penetrate the membrane and enter the cell. I t also shows that water can be extracted if the water concentration of the cell is higher than the water concentration of the solution. Another factor is surface area of potato chip, this is because the larger the surface area, the more places that water can enter the potato chip. Another factor is temperature, the higher the temperature, the more energy in the water molecules, therefore the faster they move. The faster the molecules move the quicker they can get through the membrane, and therefore the more that can get through in a given period of time. Another variable is the amount of time that you immerse the potato chips in the solution, the longer that you immerse the potato chips the more molecules of water that can transfer. Another variable is amount of light, the more light, the more energy, so the molecules move faster. The faster the molecules move the quicker they can get through the membrane, and therefore the more that can get through in a given period of time. The final variable is the water potential of the potato. The osmotic potential of a solution is a measure of whether it is likely to lose or gain water molecules from another solution. A dilute solution, with its high proportion of free water molecules, is said to have a higher osmotic potential than a concentrated solution, because water will flow from the dilute to the concentrated solution (from a high to a low potential). Pure water has the highest possible osmotic potential because water molecules will flow from it to any other aqueous solution, no matter how dilute. The higher the water potential of the potato the less growth that can occur due to osmosis, this is because less water would flow into the potato. In general the osmotic potential of a potato is determined by a potatoes variety and the way the potato chips are prepared eg. washed, dried etc. The above information came from worksheets handed out in class, Microsoft encarta encyclopedia 8, and the CGP GCSE Biology revision guide. I have decided to further investigate the effects of the variables type of potato and length of time immersed in solution. I will investigate the potato types Nadine, Majorcan, New, Pembrokeshire, Maris Piper, and Maris pier. For my experiment I will firstly cut 8 pieces of each variety of potato using a cork borer to ensure all potatoes are the same size. Then I will weigh all the pieces on a weighing scale twice and average the results to ensure accuracy, these results will be recorded in a table. I will then place all the potato pieces on a waterproof mat, to minimise water loss due to absorption. I will fill six petri dishes and label each one with one of the six potato varieties. I will then fill all of the petri dishes with the water solution. As I found out in my preliminary experiment the rate of osmosis is increased by using a dilute solution. I will be using a pure water as this has the highest possible osmotic potential. I will then place all the potato pieces in their respective petri dishes and start a stopwatch. I will ensure that they are all completely covered in water and all an equal distance apart from each other. I will then take one potato piece out of every petri dish with tweezers every five minutes between 5 and 40 minutes. When a piece is taken out, its weight is taken twice and the results averaged to ensure an accurate final weight. The final weight is recorded in the table and using the initial weight and the final weight the growth in weight and percentage is worked out. To ensure that this experiment is fair , I will keep the water concentration at 100% (pure water) for all the experiments, this will ensure that the water concentration does not distort the results and as the preliminary experiment proved ensure maximum osmotic activity. The surface area of the potato chip will not be a factor as we will use the same cork borer to ensure that they are the same diameter and a scalpel to ensure they are the same length. Temperature should not be a factor as all the experiments will be performed simultaneously and all at the same (room) temperature. The amount of light should not be a factor as all experiments will be performed in the same classroom with the same lighting conditions. To eliminate the distortion different preparation methods could produce all the potato pieces will be prepared in the same way. This leaves the type of potato and amount of time immersed in solution as the two independent variables. The mass of the potato chip is the dependant variable. Also to ensure that error due to inaccurate readings or abnormal results are reduced, we will be taking readings twice and averaging the results, and taking 8 readings over the experiments length. To ensure that the experiment is safe we will use the cork borers and scalpels on solid mats, and use them with the greatest of care. Using my research work, I can make the prediction that as the length of time immersed in solution increases so will the percentage growth. This is because pure water has the highest possible osmotic potential and therefore, loses water particles to any other substance, and the more time a material is immersed, the more water molecules can penetrate the semi permeable membrane. I believe that the variety of potato will have an effect due to their naturally varying osmotic potentialÆs.
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