Beyond Labz

Welcome to Virtual ChemLab: Inorganic, a realistic and complete simulation of inorganic qualitative analysis. In this virtual laboratory, students are free to make the choices and decisions that they would confront in an actual qualitative experiment and, in turn, experience the resulting consequences.

The purpose of the virtual inorganic laboratory is to allow students to create test tubes containing known and unknown mixtures of cations and to perform chemical and flame tests to determine the identity of the cations. The general features of the inorganic simulation include 26 cations that can be added to test tubes in any combination, 11 reagents that can be added to the test tubes in any sequence and any number of times, necessary laboratory manipulations, a lab book for recording results and observations, and a stockroom for creating test tubes with known mixtures, generating practice unknowns, or retrieving instructor assigned unknowns. The simulation uses over 2500 actual pictures to show the results of reactions and over 220 videos to show the different flame tests. Cations that are available in the simulation include Ag⁺, Al³⁺, Ba²⁺, Bi³⁺, Ca²⁺, Cd²⁺, Co²⁺, Cr³⁺, Cu²⁺, Fe²⁺, Fe³⁺, Hg²⁺, Hg₂²⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Mn²⁺, Na⁺, NH₄⁺, Ni²⁺, Pb²⁺, Sb³⁺, Sn⁴⁺, Sr²⁺, Ti⁴⁺, V⁴⁺, and Zn²⁺. Available reagents include HNO₃, H₂O₂, NH₃, Na₂S, NaCl, Na₂SO₄, NaOH, Na₂CO₃ and pH 4, pH 7, and pH 10 buffers. With 26 cations that can be combined in any order or combination and 11 reagents that can be added in any order, there are in excess of 10¹⁶ possible outcomes in the simulation.