The upcoming discussion will update you about the five major differences between semipermeable membranes and selectively permeable membranes.
Semipermeable Membrane:
1. Solutes cannot pass through it.
2. It acts as a perfect partition between two osmotically active solutions or between a solution and its pure solvent.
3. It permits entry of only one solvent.
4. It does not exits in the biological word e.g cellphane, collodion.
5. This type of membrane is used in dialysis maintenance of turgidity and measurement of osmotic potential.
Selectively Permeable Membranes:
1. It allows selected solutes to pass through it to a limited extent.
2. It acts as an imperfect partition with the result even plasmolysed protoplasts get deplasmolysed automatically even kept in the same hypertonic solution.
3. It permits entry of both solvent and to a selected extent solutes.
4. Almost all biological membrane are selectively permeable.
5. It is useful in maintaining turgidity while retaining the ability to absorb solutes.