TL;DR: The VEX Virtual Chemistry Lab brings real chemistry into your browser. Pour acids, bases, and metals into 3D beakers, watch pH and temperature shift in real time, and discover 16 reactions without spills, burns, or supply limits. It's not a replacement for a real lab, but it's a safe first step.
A textbook shows you the equation for mixing vinegar and baking soda. A school lab lets you pour them and watch the fizz. But what if you could do it without cleanup, without waiting for supplies, and as many times as you want? That's why I built the VEX Virtual Chemistry Lab.
The lab runs in a browser at visionvix.world. No install, no plugin. Pick a reagent from a shelf of 20, click a beaker, and a robotic hand pours it. The pH meter moves. The thermometer climbs or drops. The liquid changes color. You see the reaction happen and the numbers behind it.
Why a 3D chemistry lab matters
Chemistry moves fast, and textbooks don't. A neutralization reaction is over in seconds. The color shift in an indicator test is instant. A book can describe it, but you can't rewind a page and watch it again. A school lab gives you the real thing, but supplies run out, experiments need supervision, and you get one try before cleanup starts.
A 3D chemistry simulator sits between the two. It's safe enough to try at home. It's repeatable enough to test every combination. And it shows the data, pH and temperature live, that a real lab might not measure every time.
Here's how the three compare:
| Method | What you see | Risk | Repeatability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Textbook | The equation | None | Read it again |
| School lab | The real reaction | Needs goggles and supervision | Clean up and use more |
| 3D chemistry lab | The reaction, the equation, the data | None, it's on a screen | Press Reset |
The VEX Virtual Chemistry Lab gives you 16 programmed reactions, from neutralization to metal displacement to the elephant toothpaste demo. Every reagent is tagged home safe, school lab, or teacher demo, so you know what's safe to try in a real kitchen and what only a teacher should handle.
How to use the lab on desktop
The lab lives inside the VisionVix 3D simulators. Open visionvix.world and press the green Open Simulators button. You'll see a grid of worlds: Chemistry Laboratory, Physics Playground, Biology Explorer, and six others. Seven are live, two are coming soon.
Click Enter Simulator on the Chemistry Laboratory card. The lab loads in a few seconds. You're standing in a space-station workbench scene with three empty beakers on a metal counter.
Pick a reagent and pour it
The shelf on the left holds 20 reagents in four groups:
- Acids and bases: hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, vinegar, ammonia
- Indicators: red cabbage juice, universal indicator, phenolphthalein
- Solutions: water, salt water, sugar water, hydrogen peroxide
- Metals and solids: sodium metal, magnesium ribbon, copper sulfate, baking soda, calcium carbonate
A search box at the top finds one fast. Select a reagent, then click a beaker. The robotic hand lifts the bottle, carries it over, and pours. You control the amount: 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, or 100 ml, or hold the mouse on a beaker to keep pouring. Press Esc to put the bottle back.
Watch the meters move
The Lab Analysis panel follows whichever beaker you select. It shows:
- pH meter: a color scale from 0 (strongly acidic) to 14 (strongly basic), with a number and a word label
- Thermometer: the current temperature
- Contents list: how much of each reagent is in the beaker
- Reaction hint: a suggestion for what to try next
Pour vinegar into an empty beaker and the pH sits at 2.5, in the red zone. Add a spoonful of baking soda and the pH jumps to 8.0, turning blue. The temperature drops because this reaction absorbs heat. Students see both numbers shift in real time, the part a textbook can't show.
16 reactions are programmed into the lab, from acid-base neutralization to precipitation to the iodine clock. A counter at the top tracks how many you've discovered, starting at 0 of 16.
When a mix reacts, a Reaction card pops up with the name, the type, the balanced equation, whether heat is released or absorbed, a short explanation, and a safety note. The same combination always gives the same result because each reaction is a rule, not a random event.
Run a one-click experiment
The buttons along the top run full experiments for you: Volcano, Explosion, Toothpaste, and Colour Change. A More demos dropdown adds five more: Indicator Rainbow, Titration, Iodine Clock, Milk Curds, and Lemon Fizz. That's nine total. Each is tagged home safe, school lab, or teacher demo, with a one-line description of what to expect.
The Explosion demo uses sodium metal. It's the only teacher demo in the lab. The tool warns that in a real lab, only the teacher handles sodium.
Try the red cabbage test
Red cabbage juice is a natural pH indicator. The Indicator Rainbow demo pours it into three beakers, then adds vinegar to the first, water to the second, and baking soda to the third. You see red, purple, and blue side by side, showing acid, neutral, and base.
How to use the lab on a phone
On a phone the lab fills the screen. The two side panels fold behind Shelf and Analysis buttons at the top. Tap Shelf to open the reagent list over the lab, then tap a reagent and a beaker to pour. The meters, the contents list, and the reaction cards all work the same way.
The lab runs on a laptop and on a phone with the same feature set. No install, no app store. Just a browser.
Why a 3D chemistry lab helps
Nothing can go wrong. Students can try a reaction that would need goggles or teacher supervision in a real lab. Nothing spills. Nothing burns. You can pour sodium into water and watch the explosion without the danger.
Every try is repeatable. Press Reset and start again, as many times as you want, with no supplies used up. A school lab might let you run an experiment once. The 3D lab lets you run it ten times, change one variable, and run it ten more.
The numbers show up. A textbook tells you the pH changed. The lab shows you the number move from 2.5 to 8.0 in real time. A school lab might not have a pH meter for every beaker. The virtual lab always does.
How I built it
I'm Julian Neagu, a solo founder in London who builds AI tools, apps, and websites under VisionVix. The VEX Virtual Chemistry Lab is one of the 3D simulators I've published at visionvix.world.
The lab runs in the browser using three.js, a JavaScript library for 3D graphics. The scene, the beakers, the reagent bottles, and the robotic hand are all 3D models. The reagents are objects with properties: pH, temperature, reactivity, safety level. When you pour two reagents into the same beaker, the lab checks a reaction table to see if they interact.
Each of the 16 reactions is a rule. If the beaker contains hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide, the lab knows that's a neutralization reaction. It calculates the new pH based on the volumes, shifts the color, adjusts the temperature, and shows the balanced equation. If you pour vinegar and baking soda, it knows that's an acid-carbonate reaction, produces carbon dioxide, and lowers the temperature.
The pH calculation is simplified but realistic. Strong acids start at pH 1, weak acids at pH 2-4, neutral at pH 7, and strong bases at pH 13-14. The lab blends values based on volume and concentration. It's a teaching model, not a research-grade simulator, but the trends are correct.
The thermometer tracks exothermic and endothermic reactions. Neutralization releases heat, so the temperature climbs. Dissolving ammonium nitrate absorbs heat, so the temperature drops. The numbers match the direction and rough scale of real reactions.
The safety labels are deliberate. Home safe means you could try it in a kitchen with adult supervision. School lab means it needs a fume hood or goggles. Teacher demo means only the teacher handles it. Every reagent and every one-click experiment has a label.
The lab works on desktop and mobile because three.js renders in the browser. On a phone the panels fold into buttons. The touch controls let you tap a reagent, tap a beaker, and watch the pour. The meters, the reaction cards, and the Reset button all work the same way.
What it cannot do
The lab is a teaching model, not a replacement for a real lab or a chemistry degree. Here's what it can't do:
It cannot model every reaction. The lab knows 16 reactions. Real chemistry has thousands. If you pour two reagents that don't interact in the programmed list, the lab shows them mixed but inert.
It cannot simulate complex equilibria. A real buffer solution shifts gradually. The lab calculates a single pH value based on dominant species, not a dynamic equilibrium.
It cannot replace hands-on learning. Pouring a real beaker teaches you what a milliliter feels like, how to read a meniscus, and how to hold glassware. The lab skips that.
It cannot model side reactions or impurities. Real experiments sometimes fail because a reagent was contaminated or a side reaction competed. The lab assumes pure reagents and follows the main pathway.
It cannot give you a grade or detailed feedback. The lab tracks how many reactions you've discovered, but it doesn't quiz you or explain the mechanism step by step. A teacher does that.
The lab is a first step. Try the reaction here, see the numbers, then do it for real in a supervised lab.
Common mistakes to avoid
Don't assume the lab covers every possible reaction. The lab knows 16. If you mix two reagents and nothing happens, that's because the combination isn't in the reaction table, not because nothing would happen in real life.
Don't skip the safety labels. If a reagent is tagged teacher demo, that means it's dangerous in a real lab. The virtual version is safe, but the label reminds you not to try it at home.
Don't expect research-grade accuracy. The pH and temperature values are realistic but simplified. The lab is for learning trends, not for predicting exact values.
Don't pour everything into one beaker and expect a complex multi-step reaction. The lab checks for two-reagent reactions. If you add a third reagent, it recalculates based on the new mix, but it won't model a three-way simultaneous reaction unless that's explicitly programmed.
Who this is for
The lab is for students who want to explore chemistry before stepping into a real lab. It's for teachers who want to demo a reaction without setup or cleanup. It's for anyone curious about why things fizz, change color, or get warm.
If you've ever wondered what happens when you mix an acid and a base, or why baking soda makes a volcano fizz, the lab lets you pour it and watch. You can find more of my projects and demos on my YouTube channel, where I walk through the build process and share new simulator releases.
The VEX Virtual Chemistry Lab is live now at visionvix.world. Press Open Simulators, choose Chemistry Laboratory, and start pouring. If you're interested in the design principles behind the simulators, I wrote about balancing light and dark themes across the platform in this earlier post.
*No install. No mess. Just chemistry.
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