Letter to the Editor concerning “Comparison of the Effects of Stirring and Standing on Chemical Reactions” by Liu et al

Barrington, Henry and Reid, Marc (2026) Letter to the Editor concerning “Comparison of the Effects of Stirring and Standing on Chemical Reactions” by Liu et al. Synlett. ISSN 0936-5214 (https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2788-5075)

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Abstract

Liu et al. concluded that stirring has an insignificant effect on organic reaction yields. While their extensive dataset is valuable, we identify methodological concerns: (1) omission of established mixing literature, (2) experimental conditions unsuited to time-dependent mixing effects, and (3) statistical treatment potentially obscuring meaningful differences. Our reanalysis shows 3% mean yield improvement with stirring (99.7% confidence). We contextualize these findings within mixing science and highlight photochemical reactions as exceptional cases deserving further study.

ORCID iDs

Barrington, Henry ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2978-670X

Reid, Marc ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4394-3132

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• Item metadata

  Item type:	Article
  ID code:	95395
  Dates:	Date Event 16 January 2026 Published 16 January 2026 Published Online 14 January 2026 Accepted
  Subjects:	Science > Chemistry
  Department:	Faculty of Science > Pure and Applied Chemistry
  Depositing user:	Pure Administrator
  Date deposited:	26 Jan 2026 11:25
  Last modified:	12 Mar 2026 08:13
  URI:	https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/95395