How to find out if your magnetic stirrer is affecting your results – and how to fix it
Valentine Ananikov explains how the humble stirrer bar may be altering your results
Any reaction that takes place in solution requires stirring. From undergraduate experiments to high-end cutting-edge syntheses, stirring ensures that reagents mix and react under controlled conditions. Magnetic stirrers – ubiquitous spinning workhorses – are at the centre of this process. Found in millions of labs around the world, they are almost universally trusted to do their job without question.