Which vessel materials are compatable with magnetic stirrers?

I am shopping for some metal pans and beakers for use on my magnetic stirring hotplate. I do not want to block the magnetic coupling of the stir bar. The question is which common alloys are compatible? Is the compatibility essentially binary or are some materials weakly compatible?


I assume aluminum is fine because the hotplate is made of some type of cast aluminum, but I am uncertain of the effect of alloy or cold working. My ferro-magnetic stainless steel and carbon steel pans are not compatible. But how about austenitic stainless steels[non-magnetic, 304/316], copper, or brass? Unfortunately I don't have any known samples on hand to test.


Glass is ok in a pinch, or when chemical reactivity is an issue, but for simple heating baths it is a poor conductor, more fragile, and in larger sizes much more expensive than metal. (And ease of sourcing, I am near a commercial kitchen supplier and a scrap dealer with all shapes and material stock pots but I need to ship lab supplies.)


