The permeability ratio of Millipore filters saturated with organic solvents to K and to Na has been studied by measuring the potential difference across these filters. It was found that with n-octanol, toluene, and chloroform the membranes were more permeable to K+ than to Na+, the degree of discrimination being in inverse proportion to the polarity of the solvent. The dependence of NaCl and KCl diffusion potentials upon the concentration gradients across a filter soaked with about 1:1 toluene/n-butanol solution, could be expressed by the constant field equation, if it is assumed that this layer is 6 to 7 times more permeable to K+ than to Na+ and that the permeability to Cl- is negligible. Elevating the fraction of toluene in n-butanol in the separating phase makes it more selective.
Article|
March 01 1963
K-Na Discrimination by Porous Filters Saturated with Organic Solvents As Expressed by Diffusion Potentials
A. Ilani
A. Ilani
From the Rogoff Laboratory of Physiology, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
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A. Ilani
From the Rogoff Laboratory of Physiology, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
Received:
August 14 1962
Online ISSN: 1540-7748
Print ISSN: 0022-1295
Copyright ©, 1963, by The Rockefeller Institute Press
1963
J Gen Physiol (1963) 46 (4): 839–850.
Article history
Received:
August 14 1962
Citation
A. Ilani; K-Na Discrimination by Porous Filters Saturated with Organic Solvents As Expressed by Diffusion Potentials . J Gen Physiol 1 March 1963; 46 (4): 839–850. doi: https://doi.org/10.1085/jgp.46.4.839
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