Vial
Encyclopedia
A vial is a relatively small glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

 vessel or bottle
Bottle
A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a "mouth". By contrast, a jar has a relatively large mouth or opening. Bottles are often made of glass, clay, plastic, aluminum or other impervious materials, and typically used to store liquids such as water, milk, soft...

, especially used to store medication
Medication
A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...

 as liquids, powders or in other forms like capsules. They can also be sample vessels; e.g., for use in autosampler devices in analytical chromatography
Chromatography
Chromatography is the collective term for a set of laboratory techniques for the separation of mixtures....

.

The glass can be colourless or coloured, clear or amber. There are different types of closure systems, i.e., screw vials (closed with screw cap or dropper/pipette
Pipette
A pipette is a laboratory tool used to transport a measured volume of liquid.-Use and variations:Pipettes are commonly used in molecular biology, analytical chemistry as well as medical tests...

), lip vials (closed with cork or plastic stopper
Stopper (plug)
A bung is truncated cylindrical or conical closure to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel. Unlike a lid which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially inserted inside the container to act as a seal...

), crimp vials (closed with a rubber stopper and a metal cap). A vial can have a tubular shape or a bottle-like shape with a neck. The volume defined by the neck is called the "headspace". The bottom is usually flat unlike test tube
Test tube
A test tube, also known as a culture tube or sample tube, is a common piece of laboratory glassware consisting of a finger-like length of glass or clear plastic tubing, open at the top, usually with a rounded U-shaped bottom....

s which have usually a rounded bottom. Modern vials can be made of plastic (e.g. polypropylene
Polypropylene
Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes...

). These can have other closure systems like a flip-top/snap cap.
The small bottle shaped vials used in laboratories are also called bijou or McCartney's bottles. The bijou bottle tends to be smaller; around 10ml.

Etymology

The words "vial"/"phial" come from the Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 word "phiale" meaning "a broad flat container". Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

: "phiala", Late Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...

: "fiola", Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

: "fiole" and "viole".
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