Ampoule

Glass ampoules are more expensive than bottles and other simple containers, but there are many situations where their superior imperviousness to gases and liquids and all-glass interior surface are worth the extra cost.

Examples of chemicals sold in ampoules are injectable pharmaceuticals, air-sensitive reagents like tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0), hygroscopic materials like deuterated solvents and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, and analytical standards.

Historically, ampoules were used to contain a small sample of a person's blood after death, which was entombed alongside them in many Christian catacombs.

[1] An ampoule allegedly dating back to the year 305 and filled with the blood of Saint Januarius (San Gennaro), bishop of Benevento, has been kept for centuries in the Cathedral at Naples.

Every year on 19 September the town celebrates the Feast of San Gennaro, when the solid reddish-brown contents of the ampoule usually liquifies after being taken out of a safe.

Blank ampoules can be purchased from scientific glass supply houses and sealed with a small gas torch.

Photosensitive chemicals like many 14-dihydromorphinone opioids like hydromorphone and oxymorphone, various silver salts and so on can be packaged in ampoules of smoked glass, glass with chemicals added in manufacturing that filter out ultraviolet and other types of light, or be made with an opaque top and bottom (usually painted with opaque paint) and the rest of the ampoule wrapped in thick paper.

If properly done, this last operation creates a clean break without any extra glass shards or slivers, but the liquid or solution may be filtered for greater assurance.

The rings are machine-readable and allow for accurate handling of the substance for the purposes of storage, labeling, and secondary packaging.