pubs.acs.

org/jchemeduc Article

Virtual Simulation Experiments: A Teaching Option for Complex and

Hazardous Chemistry Experiments
Yaqi Hou,∇ Miao Wang,∇ Wen He, Yixin Ling, Jing Zheng, and Xu Hou*
Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445 Read Online

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ABSTRACT: Teaching through experiments has always been an indispensable

teaching method in chemistry and other STEM disciplines. Letting more
students have access to experiments at the frontier of scientific research is
essential to stimulating students’ interest in chemistry. With the advancement of
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computer technology, virtual simulation experiments (VSEs) provide a new

method to perform chemical experiments for the students who might have no
resources to conduct an experiment. Here, a VSE of preparation and test
analysis of flexible nanochannel membrane materials is designed by our group at
Xiamen University in China, which is an interactive learning platform for
studying and practicing experiments reported in the latest scientific articles. The
objective pursued herein is to equip students with the appropriate tools and
strategies required to perform a dangerous or complex chemical experiment.
Multiexperimental paths are designed in different experimental modules and
steps to meet students’ exploration needs. Our platform suits both on- and off-campus undergraduates or graduates with open access.
After practicing 5−6 times, students can gain more professional skills and get higher scores in the test section as the feedback. VSE
could become a remote-flexible experimental teaching method with a safer process, lower cost, and wider academic community,
especially during the pandemic or in the postpandemic era.
KEYWORDS: Virtual Simulation Experiment, Complex and Hazardous Chemistry Experimental Teaching, Online Interactive Learning,
Undergraduates/Graduates, Membrane Science and Technology, Internet/Web-Based Learning, Distance Learning/Self Instruction

■ INTRODUCTION
Teaching through experiments has always been an indispen-
membrane materials” into the in-person experimental classes.
However, as shown in Figure 1, the preparation process of
sable teaching method in chemistry and other STEM flexible nanochannel composite membranes is complex with
disciplines.1,2 Besides, the experimental contents in frontier numerous steps and requires a long experimental duration, and
scientific research play an essential role in stimulating students’ only one or two students can conduct the experiment at a time.
interest in chemistry. Therefore, how to migrate the Furthermore, the growth temperature of the nanochannels is
experimental contents in the latest scientific findings from higher than 700 °C, and the use of toxic reagents is also not
papers to classes in time is an important issue for teachers who conducive to students. These factors greatly limit the
are engaged in chemistry and materials-related disciplines. promotion of frontier research in teaching.
Fortunately, with the advancement of digital technology,
However, many chemical experiments, particularly those
modern teaching techniques based on mobile terminals, the
related to nanomaterials, are limited by high cost, long
Internet, and e-learning techniques are being increasingly
experimental duration, need for toxic reagents, and potential
implemented in chemistry education.12−18 In particular, virtual
hazards.3,4 Moreover, some of them must be carried out in
simulation experiments (VSEs), in which chemical experiments
specialized experimental laboratories with specialized equip-
are operated online in virtual laboratories, are emerging in
ment, which makes it unable to reach the maximum number of
various forms.19−22 Adopting VSEs in chemistry teaching can
undergraduates or graduates. For example, the research on
save money, time, and chemical resources and reduce chemical
bioinspired membrane materials and their applications is one
of the hot topics in the field of material chemistry. Recently, we
have carried out some research on seawater desalination based Received: June 20, 2022
on flexible nanochannel membrane materials (carbon nano- Revised: January 11, 2023
tubes, CNTs) and obtained some new findings.5−11 In order to Published: February 9, 2023
enable students to understand the original scientific research
results we achieved as soon as possible, we first introduced the
“preparation and test analysis of flexible nanochannel
© 2023 American Chemical Society and
Division of Chemical Education, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00594
1437 J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445
Journal of Chemical Education
Figure 1. Experimental steps of preparing flexible nanochannel membrane materials. There are 10 major steps in preparing the CNTs array
composites, which are time-consuming and require expensive laboratory equipment.
waste and chemical pollution,3,4 which paves a convenient way
for us to integrate the latest research findings into under-
graduates’ experimental classes, and it will play a big role under
some unforeseen circumstances in pandemics or in the
postpandemic period.23 Therefore, our team designed and
developed a VSE platform called “Virtual Simulation Experi-
ment of Preparation and Test Analysis of Flexible Nano-
channel Membrane Materials”, as shown in Figure 2, and we
successfully integrated it into the curriculum of related majors.
Figure 2. Boot interface of our VSE platform named “Virtual
Simulation Experiment for Preparation and Test Analysis of Flexible
Nanochannel Membrane Materials”.
During the virtual experiment teaching, students can learn
the standard preparation and test analysis methods for
membrane materials interactively by tapping the keyboard
and clicking the mouse following clear voice guidance and text
instructions. This VSE adopted the real 3D-spatial images of
the laboratory, and all the sounds in VSE are recorded during
the real experiments, for authentic reproduction of the
experimental scenes (see the video in the Supporting
Information). Students can perform and monitor different
experimental operations through a computer screen wherever
it can be connected to the Internet. Furthermore, multi-
experimental paths are designed in the VSE, in which students
can creatively explore and attempt different parameter settings
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that are difficult or dangerous to try in in-person experiments,
at greatly reduced trial costs.
The platform has been opened to undergraduates and
graduates in six colleges at four universities in China, and
teachers in seven majors have adopted this VSE in their
curriculums, which specifically include the College of
Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Xiamen University,
College of Materials in Xiamen University, College of
Materials Science and Engineering in Sichuan University,
School of Physical Science and Technology in Northwestern
Polytechnical University, School of Materials Science and
Engineering in Lanzhou University of Technology, and
Innovation Entrepreneurship Institute in Lanzhou University
of Technology. Majors involved are materials science and
engineering, chemistry, energy chemistry, chemical biology,
chemical and biochemical engineering, chemical engineering
and technology, and biomedical engineering. We are pleased to
find that it can greatly stimulate students’ enthusiasm and
autonomy in their study and exploration processes of chemical
synthesis, nanomaterial preparation, and data analysis tech-
nologies. With practice, most students give their feedback that
the skills they gained from the VSE could be well-migrated and
help them in their real experiments and research. In the future,
this VSE platform will be iteratively updating, constantly
enriching the module contents, and continuously optimizing
the multipaths algorithm according to the timely feedback
from students and users.
■ EXPERIMENT MODULES
Figure 3 shows the experimental module interface of the VSE
platform “Virtual Simulation Experiment of Preparation and
Test Analysis of Flexible Nanochannel Membrane Materials”.
It has five different experimental modules containing different
experimental contents:
• Module 1: Preparation of carbon nanotube arrays
• Module 2: Preparation of flexible carbon nanochannel-
based composite membrane
• Module 3: Ultrathin slicing and treatment of flexible
nanochannel membrane
• Module 4: Test analysis of ion transport properties of
flexible nanochannel membrane
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J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445
Journal of Chemical Education pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc Article

Figure 3. Overview of the experimental content interface and different experimental modules of the VSE platform. There are background
knowledge, reference materials, and animated video instruction for students’ self-study. Five experimental modules are designed separately to
facilitate the repetition of practice for students.

Figure 4. Interface of the virtual laboratory in Module 1. (A) Launch page and (B) 3D layout of the virtual laboratory.

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J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445
Journal of Chemical Education
Figure 5. Instruction of (A) the demo button and (B) the keyboard and mouse operation in VSE.
Figure 6. Introduction prompt of experimental principles and laboratory safety tips scrolling in Module 1.
• Module 5: Solar-driven desalination based on the flexible
nanochannel membrane
As shown in Figure 3, the website offers direct access to
reference materials, reference videos, operation manuals, and
background knowledge. Before starting each experiment,
students can read through them to gain the related background
theory and experimental operation instruction, providing a
hassle-free experimental platform for students to self-teach.
All the modules have different experimental contents but
share a similar operating procedure, and here, we use Module 1
as the example to demonstrate (see the video in the Supporting
Information). Click the “Start the experiment” button on each
module can lead the students into the virtual laboratory and
start the experiment (Figure 4A). After entering the laboratory,
the layout of the laboratory will be displayed on the screen
(Figure 4B). In each experimental module, there is operation
instruction to guide students on how to get a demonstration
and how to operate the experiment using the keyboard and
mouse (Figure 5). The demo button allows students to click to
get a demonstration operation when they encounter problems.
Students can use a keyboard and mouse to zoom in, zoom out,
and switch the viewing angle in the virtual laboratory after
entering the experimental modules, which is similar to
keyboard operations in video games. We hope that, through
this design, students can have a relaxed experience in learning
knowledge as they are taking part in a scientific game. Then,
the introduction of experiment principles will show in the
middle of the page with a brief introduction to the main
concept and theory used in this module (Figure 6), and
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laboratory safety tips are always scrolling through the bottom
of the page. All these instructions and tips vary by each
module, allowing students to build close-related experimental
safety awareness in different experimental scenarios.
Currently, our VSE includes five modules. Module 1
includes contents of ① the preparation of the carbon source
solution and ② the growth of the CNTs array. Module 2
includes ① the preparation of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
and ② the preparation of the PDMS/CNTs array composite.
Students can gain the skills of using an analytical balance to
weigh reagents and chemicals, using a vacuum pump to remove
air bubbles in the mixed PDMS, and using a dropper, spinner,
and heating plate to cure the composite, etc. Module 3
includes ① sample embedding, ② molding, and ③ slicing.
Students can gain the skills of using a biological tissue
embedding machine and microtome to obtain micron-thick
membranes. Module 4 includes ① setting test equipment and
② analysis of the ion transport properties of nanochannel
membranes. Students can gain the skills of connecting a circuit
and using an ion current testing device and Ag/AgCl
electrodes to test the current−voltage (I−V) curves of the
nanochannels. Module 5 shows the process of solar-driven
desalination based on the flexible nanochannel membranes that
students prepared in the previous four modules. Students can
get an understanding of the micromechanism of the nano-
channel-based desalination process from the animation inside.
It is worth mentioning that some multiexperimental paths
were intentionally designed in each module, allowing students
to creatively explore and try different experimental operations
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Journal of Chemical Education
Figure 7. (A) High-temperature tube furnace (left) and the preparation temperature setting interface (right) in Module 1. (B) Biological tissue
embedding machine and microtome (left) and the parameter setting interface of different slice thicknesses (right) in Module 3. (C) Nanochannel
deformation setting interface of the flexible nanochannel composite membrane in Module 4. (D) Setting interface of adjustable sunlight intensity in
desalination in Module 5.
by entering customized experimental parameters (Figure 7).
For example, in Module 1, by clicking on the temperature
control table of the high-temperature tube furnace, students
can type in different reaction temperatures (1−1700 °C) and
obtain CNTs arrays with different morphologies and yields
corresponding to the set temperature (Figure 7A). In Module
3, students can type in the slice thicknesses (1−60 μm) of the
CNT membranes and obtain different symmetries of the
nanochannels corresponding to the set thickness, resulting in
different ion transport properties (Figure 7B). In Module 4, we
designed a helical propulsion device, which can be pushed
forward 2 μm each time. Students can use it to control the
deformation degree of the flexible nanochannel (Figure 7C),
thereby observing the resulting ion transport performance (I−
V curves) of the nanochannel membrane. In Module 5, the
sunlight intensity of the solar simulator is also adjustable to
obtain different evaporation rates (Figure 7D).
A flowchart that contains more details of our multi-
experimental path design is shown in Figure S1. All the virtual
experiment results in the flowchart and VSE are obtained
based on the results and data in the real laboratory to ensure
the corresponding relationship between the VSE and the real
experiment. The reason we intentionally designed these
multiexperimental paths is to encourage students to think
differently and try creatively. In conventional in-person
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chemistry experiment teaching, this kind of exploratory
operation of trying different experimental conditions and
parameters is difficult to achieve, not only because it is money-
and time-consuming but also because some attempts are
potentially dangerous. On the other hand, in VSE, parameter
setting does not bring direct security risks for students, so it
gives students safe access to get different experimental results
with different parameter inputs, and it takes a much shorter
time compared to that in in-person experiments. In VSE,
students can get real-time feedback with different parameter
settings in a short period, so that they can learn and build the
relationship between the setting parameters and the exper-
imental results and then get a deeper understanding of the
mechanism and reasons behind the different experimental
phenomena. This safety and flexibility feature is one of the
outstanding advantages of VSE teaching compared to in-
person laboratory experimental teaching.
■ FEATURES AND ADVANTAGES
In the past, many pieces of research and articles have focused
on comparing the pros and cons of the conventional in-person
experiments and the VSE and made the investigation of
students learning behaviors in both situations.24−30 From our
teaching experience, the teaching method of VSE, although still
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J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445
Journal of Chemical Education
Figure 8. Comparison between different experimental teaching approaches of nanomaterials science and technology: virtual simulation experiment
(upper) and in-person experiment (lower).
Figure 9. (A) Experimental report interface and (B) online quiz interface in the VSE platform. (C) Photographs of guiding students to VSE in the
courses.
in its primary stage, has shown its unique advantages compared
with conventional in-person chemical experiment teaching.
First, the teaching process is safer and more flexible for
individuals. During the VSE, students are not exposed to
chemical reagents that may be hazardous or toxic nor do they
need to be close to high-temperature or high-pressure reaction
equipment, so they can complete the experiments safely. At the
same time, laboratory safety education can also be integrated
into the VSE. For instance, the potential safety issues that
might occur in in-person experiments are considered and
integrated into the VSE. When a student encounters a situation
that is potentially dangerous in practical experiments, the VSE
platform will pop up a window to warn of the potential safety
issues of the current operation (see Figure S2 and video in the
Supporting Information). Besides, VSE has the flexibility to
realize the complex “multiexperimental paths” that are difficult
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to achieve in in-person experiments at a time or in a short
period of time (Figure 8). The VSE platform will give the
experimental results according to the customized parameters;
thus, students might get different prompts and gain different
knowledge according to their own experimental paths.
Compared to other ways of online experimental teaching,
such as showing pictures with captions, showing videos, and
demonstrating live experiments during online classes, VSE can
achieve the closest experience to the in-person experimental
class that allows students to operate and control every step and
procedure by themselves and get the feedback in a timely
manner. This interactive design of VSE is conducive to
encouraging students to explore independently and improve
their innovation ability.
Second, it reduces the cost of education and facilitates
replication so that more students can benefit. The VSE
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Journal of Chemical Education
Figure 10. Improvement of VSE scores for the same students with the increase in training times.
platform only needs maintenance and upgrade costs in the long
run without the investment of expensive and large-scale
laboratory equipment, which breaks the restrictions of
economic conditions and can easily realize cross-city or
cross-school teaching. Students can carry out virtual experi-
ments in their homes or at any place where there is the
Internet. Especially in the past three years, due to the global
pandemic of COVID-19, many students could not go to the
laboratory as usual. This kind of online experimental teaching
will be an effective and alternative way to continue normal
teaching activities.
Finally, the VSE platform can be updated in real-time. Our
latest scientific findings and articles can be uploaded easily so
that students and teachers can share knowledge in a timely and
modern manner. There is also a section designed for online
feedback in our VSE. Students can make comments on the
problems and bugs they encountered during their practice and
study so that we can get constant feedback from the
perspective of student users, which continuously guides us to
enrich the platform functions and optimize the learning
experience.
■ STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOME
As students perform the experiments, the VSE system will
record and score each operation step and remind them of
inappropriate operations. At the same time, students can
submit experimental reports, as shown in Figure 9A. And, a
quiz containing more than 50 questions is designed depending
on the key points of the experimental principles, safety tips,
and related background knowledge, as shown in Figure 9B, so
that students can further review or recall the previous
experimental operations and relevant knowledge while
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answering the questions and deepen their understanding of
experimental principles and methods. After finishing the quiz,
students can get a score as feedback, and we can evaluate the
learning outcomes according to the scores and further optimize
the design of quiz questions. Benefiting from the convenience
of the VSE platform, up to 50−60 students can participate in
experiments at the same time in our courses, as shown in
Figure 9C.
Based on the statistic of the quiz scores, shown in Figure 10,
we found that, after repeated practice, students are able to
achieve 90−100 out of 100 or even full marks in the
experiments and quizzes (Student group I), while for the
students who have not practiced multiple times only can reach
60−70 out of 100 (Student group II) even though they got
similar scores for the first one or two trails as those in Student
group I. The reason the students could not master the 90−
100% operation methods and skills in the first 3−4 times is
that, for the majority of the students, it is the first time for
them to prepare and analyze the nanochannel membrane
materials. Students need to explore and find the correct
operation methods independently through making mistakes
and trial and error on the VSE platform. Besides, the score
composition varies among students too. Although the scores in
the first or second round are 60−70, the mistakes leading to
deducting points made by each student are different. Students
could make personalized mistakes and learn from their own
mistakes so that students will be more impressed with what
they have learned while correcting their mistakes. This
interesting finding indicates that students will master the
corresponding experimental skills very proficiently through
repeated trial and error and operation practice.
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J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445
Journal of Chemical Education
This virtual experimental course is mainly open to junior
students who have related background knowledge of
chemistry, physics, materials, etc. Since the instructions and
demonstration in our VSE platform are detailed, students who
have little background knowledge can also finish the
experimental training following the instructions. Thus, it also
opens to learners who are interested in scientific research both
on-campus and off-campus. Since the VSE platform launched
on November 29, 2019, the VSE platform has served more
than 10,000 learners. It has been successfully carried out for 3
years as part of the teaching contents of related courses,
including “Interfacial Science of Bioinspired Smart Materials”,
“Material Engineering Curriculum Design”, “Biomaterial
Preparation Technology”, and “Soft Matter and Functional
Materials”. Most students have reported that the skills they
gained from this VSE can be well-migrated to their daily
experiments and research. On the basis of these positive
feedback and results, the VSE introduced in this article has
been proven to be an effective option for chemical
experimental training.
■ SUMMARY AND FURTHER WORK
In summary, the VSE platform provides an alternative teaching
method for complex and hazardous chemistry experiments,
which is available for a wider range of students worldwide. The
platform is welcomed by undergraduates and graduates and
can be extended to more universities in the future. As it is still
in its primary stage, there is still a lot of room for optimization.
For example, on the premise of not affecting the student
learning and teacher teaching of the existing modules, new
contents and modules in the VSE will be extended constantly
based on our latest and upcoming research findings.5,31−33
More experimental paths and parameter setting choices would
be added at the same time according to more real experimental
data, offering more space for students’ exploration. Further-
more, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI),
we need to try to integrate machine learning algorithms to the
platform, so that the platform can learn the relationship
between different outputs and different parameter inputs based
on the existing experimental data, so that it can infer possible
experimental results depending on the students’ variable
settings, and also the exploration by different students in the
experimental process can be recorded and evaluated more
accurately. At the same time, further exploration of how
students navigate the multiple “paths” available to them in
VSEs is another research direction, in which we will make a
statistic on different probabilities of different paths being
learned by students to evaluate students’ preference in
exploration for different experimental paths. According to the
statistical results, those paths rarely explored by students will
be optimized or redesigned with a clearer guide or instruction
based on the students’ feedback. Relevant questionnaires will
also be needed to be designed to obtain students’ evaluation of
the teaching process and feedback on the teaching outcomes.
In conclusion, these virtual or remote ways are very suitable for
experiments with toxic and high risk as students can perform
experiments in a more comfortable and less stressful
environment. VSE can provide a great toolkit and support
for future and modern chemistry education and outreach and
have its prospects in the pandemic or postpandemic era. The
website address of the VSE platform is http://xmu-rxnmcl.
dlvrtec.com/, which is open to all the students and users
worldwide for free. Readers are welcome to contact us if you
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have suggestions, feedback, or questions about using it in other
related courses.
■ ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information
sı
The Supporting Information is available at https://pubs.ac-
s.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00594.
Figures of flow chart of the multipaths in the VSE
platform and screenshots of safety tips and warnings in
the VSE (PDF)
Video showing navigation through VSE platform (MP4)
■ AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
Xu Hou − State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid
Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,
Institute of Artificial Intelligence, and Department of Physics,
Research Institute for Biomimetics and Soft Matter, Fujian
Provincial Key Laboratory for Soft Functional Materials
Research, Jiujiang Research Institute, College of Physical
Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005,
China; Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies
of Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM), Xiamen
361102, China; orcid.org/0000-0002-9615-9547;
Email: houx@xmu.edu.cn
Authors
Yaqi Hou − State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of
Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering and The Institute of Flexible Electronics (IFE,
Future Technologies), Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005,
China; orcid.org/0000-0003-1741-7403
Miao Wang − Institute of Artificial Intelligence and College of
Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China;
orcid.org/0000-0002-6354-7324
Wen He − State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid
Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,
Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Yixin Ling − State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of
Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
Jing Zheng − State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of
Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China;
Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of
Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM), Xiamen
361102, China
Complete contact information is available at:
https://pubs.acs.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00594
Author Contributions
∇
Y.H. and M.W. contributed equally to this work.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (T2241022, 52025132, 52273305,
21975209, 21621091, 22275156, 22021001, 22121001, and
22275207), the National Science Foundation of Fujian
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00594
J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445
Journal of Chemical Education
Province of China (2022J02059), the 111 Project (B17027,
B16029), the Science and Technology Projects of Innovation
Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of Energy Materials
of Fujian Province (RD2022070601), the Tencent Foundation
(The XPLORER PRIZE), the Youth Innovation Promotion
Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2022325), the
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
(BK20211099), the Gusu Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Leading Talent Plan (ZXL2022460), and the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (20720220019).
Thanks are given to the Beijing VR Technology Co., Ltd. for
its contribution in building, maintaining, and updating the VSE
platform.
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https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00594
J. Chem. Educ. 2023, 100, 1437−1445