Osmotic pressure, the pressure that develops in a solution separated from a solvent by a membrane permeable only to solvent, was first described by Abbé J.A. Nollet.
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Osmosis was discovered by Nollet in 1748 with a container, filled to the brimwith alcohol and closed by a pig's bladder, which had stood for several hours in water (to protect the alcohol against entry of air). The bladder had admitted the water into the container, but only very little alcohol. As water and alcohol were being exchanged, that is, the container closed with the pig's bladder contained water and was below alcohol, the pig's bladder vaulted concavely into the water container. It had let water escape and allowed only a little alcohol to enter. His discovery of the osmosis of water through a bladder into alcohol was the starting-point of that branch of physics.
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Terminology for membranes and membrane processes(IUPAC Recommendations 1996)
Reverse osmosis (RO) (FDA Inspector's guide)