Osmosis, from molecular insights to large-scale applications

Abstract

Osmosis is a universal phenomenon occurring in a broad variety of processes. It is both trivial in its fundamental expression, yet highly subtle in its physical roots. Here we give a global and unifying view of osmosis and its consequences with a multi-disciplinary perspective. Pushing the fundamental understanding of osmosis, we explore new perspectives in a variety fields and highlight a number of examples where osmotic processes show great promises in terms of applications.