A Syrian greenish glass, 4th century BC, double-handled vial with flattened belly.

A vial (also phial) is a relatively small glass vessel or bottle, especially used to store medication 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.^[1]

The glass can be colourless or coloured, clear or amber. There are different types of closure systems, e.g. Screw vials (closed with screw cap or dropper/pipette), Lip vials (closed with cork or plastic stopper), Crimp vials (closed with a rubber stopper and a metal cap).^[2] 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 tubes which have usually a rounded bottom. Modern vials can be made of plastic (e.g. polypropylene). These can have other closure systems like a flip-top/snap cap.

[edit] Etymology

[edit] See also

• Ampoule
• Vacutainer

[edit] Notes

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