What is the term for the bursting of red blood cells in a hypotonic solution?

The term that describes the bursting of red blood cells in a hypotonic solution is hemolysis. When red blood cells are placed in a hypotonic environment, the concentration of solutes outside the cells is lower than that inside the cells. This causes water to flow into the cells via osmosis, leading to an increase in internal pressure. If the pressure exceeds the structural integrity of the cell membrane, the cells will burst, resulting in hemolysis.

Osmosis refers specifically to the movement of water across a semipermeable membrane from an area of lower solute concentration to an area of higher solute concentration, which is the process that initiates hemolysis but does not specifically describe the bursting of cells. Diffusion, on the other hand, involves the movement of molecules from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration and does not relate to the mechanism of red blood cell rupture. Filtration is a process typically associated with the separation of particles from a fluid and is unrelated to the behavior of red blood cells in a hypotonic environment.