An externally driven magnetic microstirrer

In this paper, an inexpensive, easy-to-fabricate active magnetic mixer is presented. This mixer functions on top of a common magnetic stir plate and is capable of mixing two streams, each at flow rates up to 5 ml min(-1). A liquid-phase photopolymerization technique is used to fabricate the device. An analysis of mixing efficiency is based on greyscale intensity measurements of two coloured streams passing through the mixer. A brief hypothesis of the mechanism of mixing is also presented.