Imbibition

Imbibition is the phenomena of adsorption of water or any other liquid by the solid particles of a substance without forming a solution. The solid particles which adsorb water are called imbibants. The imbibants are rich in hydrophilic colloids and have strong affinity with water.
                                                                                     Imbibition results in as increase in volume, liberation of heat and development of pressure called imbibition pressure.

Importance:- i) Absorption of water by young cells is mostly through imbibition.
ii) Imbibition plays important role in germination of seeds.
iii) Imbibition causes the swelling of seeds results in the breaking of seed coat.
iv) Seedling is able to come out of soil due to development of imbibition pressure.
v) Jamming of wooden frames during rains is caused by swelling of wood due to imbibition.
vi) In older times, it was used in breaking the rocks.

Factors affecting imbibition:-
i)  The rate of imbibition increases with rise in temperature.
ii) The rate of imbibition decreases with increasing the concentration of solutes in medium.
iii) Imbibition also influenced by texture like more looseness more imbibition and compactness less imbibition.

Imbibition pressure:- The imbibant, after imbibition of water or liquid, exerts the pressure which is called imbibition pressure. The germinating seeds have imbibition pressure of about 1000 aiomspheres.