Virtual labs
93 experimentsRun chemistry experiments in 3D: change the conditions, watch what happens, and read the numbers behind it.
General chemistry (7)
Weighing a chemical reaction: conservation of massLet limestone react with acid in a flask on a balance, then repeat with the flask open — and explain the difference.Solids, liquids, gases: a particle viewCool the particle box and squeeze the piston to compress a gas into the packing of a liquid, then a solid.Preparing a solution of known concentrationWeigh copper(II) sulfate, dissolve it in water and see how the amount of solute controls the concentration.Electron shells and configurations, H to ArStep the atomic number from 1 to 18 and watch electrons fill the shells, layer by layer.Reading trends in the periodic tableColour the table by atomic radius, ionisation energy or electronegativity and hunt for periodic patterns.Stoichiometry: limiting reagent and yieldVary the starting amounts of $\ce{H2}$ and $\ce{O2}$ and see which one limits the amount of water formed.Predicting molecular shapes with VSEPRStep through the five basic AXₙ geometries and see how electron-pair repulsion fixes the bond angles.
Inorganic chemistry (10)
Activity series: zinc versus copperDip a zinc strip into blue copper sulfate and watch red copper grow while the blue fades.Hydrogen by electrolysis of waterAdd a pinch of sodium hydroxide to water, switch on the current, and collect twice as much hydrogen as oxygen.Why iron rusts: a corrosion cell on a nailCompare bare iron, galvanised iron and painted iron in humid air to see the electrochemistry of rust.Electrolysis of copper(II) chloridePass a current through $\ce{CuCl2}$ solution: copper grows on the cathode and chlorine bubbles off the anode.Flame tests: the color of metal ionsHold a salt in a Bunsen flame and identify the metal from the color of the flame.Why copper(II) complexes change colourSwitch between $\ce{[Cu(H2O)6]^{2+}}$, $\ce{[Cu(NH3)4]^{2+}}$ and $\ce{[CuCl4]^{2-}}$ and link each colour to the ligand-field splitting $\Delta$.Building crystals: unit cells and packingRotate six crystal structures, count atoms per cell and compare how tightly they pack.Crystal structures explorer: metals and saltsRotate SC, BCC, FCC, NaCl, CsCl and diamond-type cells, count atoms and compare packing of real materials.Precipitation and the solubility productMix lead(II) nitrate and potassium iodide solutions to observe yellow lead(II) iodide and relate precipitation to Q versus Ksp.Growing a crystal: lattice stacking and vacanciesStack CsCl-type unit cells one by one, then remove ions at random to see how vacancies break perfect periodicity.
Organic chemistry (9)
Burning hydrocarbons: signs of a chemical changeIgnite methane, ethylene, acetylene and benzene in turn; compare the flame and the products each fuel leaves behind.Esterification: making ethyl acetateFollow the atom-level rearrangement as acetic acid and ethanol form ethyl acetate and water in an acid-catalysed equilibrium.Isomers you can rotate: same formula, different moleculesInspect three isomer pairs in one rotating scene — chain isomers of $\ce{C4H10}$, cis/trans $\ce{C4H8}$ and the enantiomers of $\ce{CHBrClF}$.Reflux synthesis of an esterHeat a carboxylic acid with an alcohol under a vertical condenser: vapour condenses and returns to the flask, so volatile reagents can boil for a long time without loss.Saponification: turning fat into soapBoil a fat with sodium hydroxide and watch the triglyceride split into glycerol and fatty-acid salts — soap — which a saturated salt solution then pushes out of the mixture.Molecular geometry in 3D: electron pairs ruleTurn lone pairs on and off for every AXₙEₘ skeleton — from linear $\ce{CO2}$ to octahedral $\ce{SF6}$ — and watch bond angles shrink.Hybrid orbitals and delocalizationRender sp, sp² and sp³ lobes in 3D, then connect each hybridization to geometry, resonance and the CIP stakes of stereoisomerism.SN1 versus SN2: timing is everythingStep through the concerted SN2 path and the two-step SN1 path, then predict which mechanism each alkyl halide prefers.Diels–Alder: six electrons in one ringFollow the concerted [4+2] cycloaddition of butadiene and ethylene, inspect the endo rule, and run the retro reaction backwards.
Analytical chemistry (10)
pH-metric titration and the buffer regionTitrate acetic acid with NaOH and watch the curve flatten where the $\ce{CH3COOH/CH3COO^-}$ pair buffers the pH — at half-equivalence pH = pKa.Chromatography of leaf pigmentsSeparate green-leaf pigments as coloured bands and compare their migration with the solvent front.Qualitative analysis: flame colours of metal cationsSpray chloride salts into a flame: each cation emits its own colour and the palette Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Sr²⁺, Ba²⁺, Cu²⁺ becomes a qualitative test.Permanganometric titration of iron(II)Titrate an acidified Fe²⁺ solution with KMnO₄: the purple oxidant is its own indicator and the titration curve shows a steep jump at equivalence.Acid–base titration with an indicatorDrip NaOH from a burette into an acid and watch the indicator change color at the equivalence point.Column chromatography on silicaPack a silica column and elute a mixture of ferrocene, acetylferrocene and a polar impurity: the bands separate because each compound partitions differently between silica and the mobile phase.Gravimetric determination of sulfate as BaSO₄Precipitate sulfate quantitatively with barium chloride, then filter, ignite and weigh the BaSO₄: the mass of a pure, stoichiometric solid reveals how much sulfate the sample contained.Reading isotope patterns in mass spectraCompare the M/M+2 signatures of chlorinated and brominated compounds and deduce which halogen — and how many — a molecule contains.Identify an unknown liquid from its IR spectrumFive unlabelled spectra of common solvents: find the diagnostic bands, deduce the functional group, and name the compound.Beer–Lambert law: calibrating UV-Vis absorbanceMeasure how the absorbance of a KMnO₄ solution grows linearly with concentration and path length, then read an unknown concentration straight from the calibration line.
Physical chemistry (12)
The Tyndall effect: is it a solution or a colloid?Shine a narrow beam through water and through a colloidal sol: only the colloid shows a glowing path — the classic test for particle sizes between 1 nm and 1 μm.Building an acetate bufferMix acetic acid with sodium acetate and watch the pH settle near pKa = 4.76, as Henderson–Hasselbalch predicts.Measuring heat with a coffee-cup calorimeterDrop a hot metal block into water inside an insulated cup and deduce the metal’s specific heat from q = mcΔT.A galvanic cell: from Daniell to NernstBuild a zinc–copper cell, watch electrons flow, and see how the voltage depends on the metals and on concentration.Shifting an equilibrium by concentration: the iron(III) thiocyanate complexUse the blood-red complex $\ce{Fe^{3+} + SCN^- <=> [FeSCN]^{2+}}$ as a visible sensor of its own equilibrium: each reagent added or removed pushes the colour one way or the other.Gas in a piston: pressure, volume, temperatureSqueeze and heat a gas made of moving particles and see why PV = nRT holds.Le Chatelier’s principle: shifting a chemical equilibriumExplore how temperature, pressure, concentration and catalysts affect the N₂O₄ ⇌ 2NO₂ equilibrium.The phase diagram of waterRotate a three-dimensional p–T–V surface and project it onto the p–T plane: solid, liquid and vapour regions meet at the triple point and the liquid–vapour line ends at the critical point.Electrolysis of water in a Hofmann voltameterSplit water into hydrogen and oxygen and check Faraday’s law and the 2 : 1 volume ratio.Activation energy and the Arrhenius lawVary temperature, activation energy, catalyst and concentration in a collision model and extract the exponential sensitivity of rate to temperature.Reaction rate and collision theoryWatch A + B → 2C happen only when colliding particles carry enough energy; change temperature, Ea and catalyst.Adsorption sites and the Langmuir isothermInspect the periodic potential wells on a solid surface — the adsorption sites — and connect their finite number to the saturation shape of the Langmuir isotherm.
Theoretical and computational chemistry (6)
Mixing s and p orbitals: sp, sp² and sp³ hybridsMorph the hybridisation type and watch how one s orbital plus p orbitals reorganise into equivalent lobes pointing along a line, a triangle or a tetrahedron.An ideal gas as a molecular-dynamics boxWatch Newton’s laws act on individual particles and see pressure emerge from their collisions with the piston.Bonding and antibonding orbitals of H₂Build the molecular orbitals of the simplest molecule from two 1s atomic orbitals, then stretch and compress the bond to see how the bonding advantage disappears.Seeing what quantum numbers do to an orbitalDial the quantum numbers n, l and m of a hydrogen-like orbital and watch its electron cloud change shape, lobes and nodes.The periodic table as a data landscapeRender periodic properties — atomic radius, electronegativity, ionisation energy — as 3D terrain and practise spotting the periodic trends a machine-learning model would have to learn.A potential energy surface: minima, saddle, reaction pathExplore a computed-style surface with two wells joined by a saddle point, follow the minimum-energy path and connect it to the activation energy of transition-state theory.
Biochemistry and biomedical chemistry (9)
Assembling the DNA double helixRotate an idealized DNA ladder: identify the sugar–phosphate backbone, the A–T and G–C rungs, and see why the two strands must run in opposite directions.Alcoholic fermentation of glucoseWatch yeast turn a sugar solution into ethanol while carbon dioxide bubbles out of the fermenter — a living, anaerobic chemical factory.The iodine test: starch, glycogen and enzyme digestionUse iodine to distinguish polysaccharides from simple sugars, then watch the blue-black colour track amylase digestion.Verifying a CRISPR–Cas9 cut on a DNA gelRun uncut plasmid and Cas9-digested DNA through an agarose gel: one band becomes two after cleavage.Enzyme catalysis: the Michaelis–Menten curvePlot the initial rate v of an enzyme reaction against substrate concentration and see why the curve saturates at Vmax.Michaelis–Menten assay: spotting the inhibitor typeRun virtual rate measurements at eight substrate concentrations, then classify an unknown inhibitor by how Km and Vmax respond — the core skill of enzyme kinetics.Paper electrophoresis: separating proteins by chargeSpot three model proteins on a buffer-soaked strip, switch on the field, and watch them part — or reverse direction — as the pH changes.Protein folding: hydrophobic collapseDrive a model polypeptide from an open coil toward a compact fold by adding long-range contacts, and connect the picture to Anfinsen’s principle and modern structure prediction.Docking a ligand into a protein pocketSteer a small molecule into a model binding pocket with the ξ slider and watch which contacts must line up for binding — the geometric heart of structure-based drug design.
Materials chemistry (5)
Inside a lithium-ion cell: the Li⁺ shuttleTrace the path of Li⁺ through anode, electrolyte and cathode during discharge, vary the rate, and connect the shuttle picture to capacity fade and fast-charge limits.Why gold sols are red: the plasmon bandCompare UV–Vis absorbance curves of gold nanoparticles from 5 nm to aggregated 100 nm and connect λmax to particle size — the basis of colourimetric nano-assays.Graphene: one atom thick, one bond wideRotate an extended honeycomb of sp² carbons, trace the hexagonal rings and connect the flat π sheet to graphene’s record conductivity and strength.X-ray diffraction: measuring the spacing between planesA powder pattern is a fingerprint of interplanar spacings. Move the Bragg peaks by changing the wavelength or the d-spacing and read 2θ off the diffractogram.Surface traps in a perovskite solar filmExplore a model perovskite crystallite layer by layer: count the under-coordinated surface sites that act as recombination traps and understand why passivation raises cell efficiency.
Polymer chemistry (5)
Watching a hydrogel drink waterTrap charged groups inside a gel boundary and watch water molecules rush in — the molecular engine behind super-absorbent materials.The nylon rope trickAn interface between two immiscible solutions weaves nylon-6,6; watch the chain grow amide by amide as it is pulled away.Superabsorbent polymer: how a gel drinks waterWatch a polyacrylate chain carry charged –COO⁻ groups, then add cross-links and reason about why there is a sweet spot for swelling.Chain architecture: from thermoplastics to thermosetsDial the cross-link density on a cartoon polymer chain and connect the topology to rubber elasticity, thermoplastics and hard networks.Cross-linking PVA: from a liquid chain to a gelAdd cross-links to a flexible PVA-like chain and picture the transition from freely flowing polymer to an elastic network.
Nuclear and radiochemistry (6)
Rutherford scattering: probing the atom with α particlesFire a collimated α beam at a gold foil and trace the trajectories: nearly all pass through, a few deflect, and a rare few bounce straight back.Measuring half-life and dating a sampleFollow the decay of four real nuclides on one chart, read their half-lives off the curves, and choose which isotope could date a mummy, a wine cellar or nuclear fallout.Radioactive decay: reading the half-lifeFollow the surviving fraction N/N₀ for four medical isotopes and check that it halves after every half-life.Criticality: how a fission chain grows or diesTrack the neutron population generation by generation for three values of the multiplication factor k and discover what “critical” really means.PET imaging: timing a positron tracerCompare the decay curves of ¹⁸F, ¹¹C, ⁶⁸Ga and ¹⁵O, see why hospitals pair a cyclotron with a radiochemistry lab, and follow the positron annihilation that lights up the scan.Synthesising element 118 one atom at a timeWalk a superheavy ion through the whole facility — source, accelerator, target, separator, detector — and see why discovering a new element takes weeks of beam for a handful of atoms.
Environmental, green and energy chemistry (5)
Acid rain and the pH of lakesTrace $\ce{SO2}$ from a smokestack to an acidified lake, then see how limestone neutralises the acidity.Why greenhouse gases block infraredScan the infrared spectrum and locate the absorption bands that let $\ce{CO2}$, $\ce{H2O}$, $\ce{CH4}$ and $\ce{O3}$ trap Earth’s heat.How hard is this water? An EDTA titrationDrip EDTA into a water sample buffered at pH 10; while Ca²⁺/Mg²⁺ are still free the indicator stays wine red, then snaps to blue at the endpoint.Carbon capture with an amine scrubbing loopFollow flue gas through an absorber–stripper loop where cold amine grabs $\ce{CO2}$ and hot amine lets it go.The ozone layer as a UV shieldCompare solar UV at the top of the atmosphere and at the ground, then read the ozone absorption cross-section.
Industrial and applied chemistry (6)
Refining crude oil: distillation and crackingSeparate crude oil into fractions by boiling range, then crack heavy molecules into useful light fuels.Simple distillation: separating ethanol and waterHeat a coloured ethanol–water mixture and collect condensed vapour. Relate vapour enrichment to volatility and learn why simple distillation cannot remove the ethanol–water azeotrope.The contact process: making sulfuric acidFollow the industrial chain S → SO₂ → SO₃ → oleum → H₂SO₄ and understand why each unit is needed.Industrial fermentation: from sugar to productRun a virtual fermenter train — sterilise, inoculate, ferment, separate — and see how microbes manufacture chemicals.The Haber–Bosch process: ammonia from airCompress $\ce{N2}$ and $\ce{H2}$ over an iron catalyst, condense the ammonia and recycle the unreacted gas.The Solvay process: soda ash from brineFollow the five stages of the ammonia-soda cycle: brine purification, ammoniation, carbonation, filtration of NaHCO₃ and calcination to Na₂CO₃ — with ammonia recycled.
Emerging interdisciplinary directions (3)
Two rings, one mechanical bond: a catenaneRotate a [2]catenane — two macrocycles linked like chain links with no covalent bond between them — and see how chemists turn that mechanical freedom into molecular motors.Splitting water with light: TiO₂ photocatalysisIlluminate a TiO₂ film in water with UV and watch electrons and holes make H₂ and O₂ — artificial photosynthesis.Pump–probe: watching a molecule react in femtosecondsRead transient-absorption kinetics at three probe wavelengths: separate the excited-state absorption, the ground-state bleach and the product band, and extract lifetimes.
Virtual experiment: a simplified model to build intuition. It does not replace real lab work or safety training; never repeat chemistry at home without supervision.