SensNews July 2020

Sensor100 July 2020 18 The LastWord A few years ago,The LastWord was a regular feature of Sensor100 which included bizarre, off-topic and other amusing items which didn't fit anywhere else. The pandemic lockdown provides an opportunity to re-introduce this feature from time to time. Last time I worked in a laboratory, which admittedly was a few decades ago, there were some essential pieces of kit which you hung on to tenaciously: a teflon block (breaks ground loops in electrochemical experiments); a low leakage capacitor (for integrating op amp circuits) and a hemostat (for expanding plastic tubes in continuous flow systems). However, more important than all of these was a magnetic stirrer bar- I don't know why but I still have mine. For nostalgic reasons, this article from the Uni- versity ofWarwick caught my eye. Monitoring Chemistry In Situ with a Smart Stirrer: A Magnetic Stirrer Bar with an Integrated Process Monitoring System Inspired by the miniaturization and efficiency of the sensors for telemetry, we have developed a device that provides the functionalities of laboratory magnetic stirring and integrated multisensor monitoring of various chemical reaction parameters.The device, called “Smart Stirrer”, when immersed in a solution, can in situ monitor physical properties of the chemical reaction such as the temperature, conduc- tivity, visible spectrum, opaqueness, stirring rate, and viscosity.This data is transmitted real-time over a wireless connection to an external system, such as a PC or smart- phone. ACS Sensors July 3