Chemistry lab simulations for school and college: three virtual labs, one now closed

Chemistry lab simulations replace glassware with a screen, so a student can dilute, titrate or balance without a wet lab. Three with an official page are compared below. Each page was requested in November 2026, and two of them are in use.

PhET describes itself as providing fun, free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations. The simulations are open source and built mostly in HTML5, with a few older ones in Java or Flash. They run online or as a download, and the site links apps for iOS and Android. The copyright line names the University of Colorado, and the sponsors shown are the Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Yidan Prize and the Mastercard Foundation.

PhET splits chemistry into small simulations. Molarity lets a student adjust the amount of solute and the volume of a solution and compare solutes. Acid-Base Solutions measures pH with paper or a probe and conductivity with electrodes, then shows how concentration and strength change the pH. Balancing Chemical Equations and Reactants, Products and Leftovers both end in a game, the second with levels and a perfect score to chase.

The ChemCollective Virtual Lab is closer to a bench. Its page says it links chemical computations with authentic laboratory chemistry and offers hundreds of standard aqueous reagents. Pre-written problems are ranked by difficulty and cover stoichiometry, thermochemistry, equilibrium, acid-base chemistry, solubility, oxidation and reduction, electrochemistry, and analytical chemistry and lab techniques. Examples on the page are the Glucose Dilution Problem and the Acid Dilution Problem.

The Royal Society of Chemistry closed its titration and aspirin synthesis screen experiments. The article is dated October 29, 2026 and gives the reason in the society's words: the software they used has aged and cannot be maintained. The society says it is working to identify suitable support for new online practical experiments for school students, and no replacement is confirmed. The old titration address now leads to that article, so the entry is Discontinued.

Each maker's page is read. The ChemCollective lab page is a different document from the site's generic page: the generic page is titled ChemCollective, and the lab page is titled ChemCollective: Virtual Labs. That is weaker evidence than for the other two makers and is noted in the table.

A school or college chemistry lab trains measurement, careful handling of reagents and the habit of reasoning from a result: diluting to a target concentration, titrating to an endpoint, reading what a pH value says about a solution. Glassware and reagents need a room, a supervisor and a budget, and an experiment cannot be repeated without limit. A simulation removes those limits, so a student can make a wrong dilution, see the outcome and start again. It cannot supply the feel of a pipette or the discipline of a real bench, so it fits best before or beside wet lab hours.

Platform comes first. PhET runs in a browser or as a download and links apps for iOS and Android, which suits a room with mixed devices. The ChemCollective Virtual Lab is online with offline downloads linked, which helps where the connection is weak. Cost comes second: PhET states that its simulations are free, and the ChemCollective page states no price, so check before assigning it.

Audience decides the rest. PhET splits chemistry into small single-topic simulations, a fit for a demonstration or a concept check. Virtual Lab offers pre-written problems ranked by difficulty, a fit for homework or a lab report. Its analytical chemistry and lab techniques problems are the nearest listed topic for a teacher whose titration experiment closed, although the page does not name titration.

Each chemistry lab game above carries the label it had in the month shown in its checked column; the games directory explains what every label means. Start with PhET Interactive Simulations or the Virtual Lab for the two entries in use today.