Design of a Virtual Laboratory for Electrophoretic Separation Analysis

Abstract An experiment in Analytical Separation Chemistry is expensive because it uses expensive instrumentation, chemicals and involved skilled laboratory resources. The problem faced was that there was an experiment in a separation analysis that was not carried out due to limitation of laboratory resources. The virtual laboratory design is a good strategy for teaching the principles of separation analysis to overcome the problem in the laboratory facilities. This research aims to design a virtual laboratory to simulate electrophoretic separation analysis in Analytical Chemistry. The research was carried out by developing a virtual electrophoresis design which has the same working principle as real laboratory equipment. The research results show that virtual laboratory electrophoresis has been successfully developed and standardized. The virtual laboratory consists of learning resources containing the concept of electrophoretic separation, visualization of instrumentation work, the protocol of separation process, virtual display of electrophoretic separation results and problem solving on electrophoretic topic. A virtual laboratory product is suitable as learning media in providing knowledge of electrophoresis separation for users before carrying out actual experiments. This virtual design is a model for other virtual chemical separation laboratories, as a learning tool for users such as students, laboratory assistants and practitioners.