Some time ago, the US “Wall Street Journal” reported that the advent of vaccines is facing a bottleneck: the shortage of glass vials for storage and special glass as raw materials will hinder mass production. So does this little glass bottle have any technical content?
As a packaging material that directly contacts drugs, medicinal glass bottles are widely used in the field of pharmaceutical packaging materials due to their relatively stable performance, such as vials, ampoules, and infusion glass bottles.
Since medicinal glass bottles are in direct contact with medicines, and some have to be stored for a long time, the compatibility of medicinal glass bottles with medicines is directly related to the quality of medicines, and involves personal health and safety.
The glass bottle manufacturing process, negligence in testing and other reasons have caused some problems in the field of pharmaceutical packaging in recent years. E.g:
Poor acid and alkali resistance: Compared with other packaging materials, glass is relatively weak in acid resistance, especially alkali resistance. Once the quality of the glass fails, or the appropriate material is not selected, it is easy to endanger the quality of medicines and even the health of patients. .
Different production processes have different effects on the quality of glass products: glass packaging containers are usually produced by molding and controlled processes. Different production processes have a greater impact on the quality of the glass, especially on the resistance of the inner surface. Therefore, strengthening the inspection control and standards for the performance of glass bottle pharmaceutical packaging materials has a crucial impact on the quality of pharmaceutical packaging and the development of the industry.
The main ingredients of glass bottles
Glass bottles of medicine packaging materials usually contain silicon dioxide, boron trioxide, aluminum oxide, sodium oxide, magnesium oxide, potassium oxide, calcium oxide and other ingredients.
What are the problems with glass bottles
· The precipitation of examples of alkali metals (K, Na) in the glass leads to an increase in the pH value of the pharmaceutical industry
· Low-quality glass or prolonged erosion by alkaline liquids may cause peeling: glass peeling may block blood vessels and cause thrombosis or pulmonary granulomas.
· Precipitation of harmful elements in glass: harmful elements may exist in glass production formula
· Aluminum ions precipitated in glass have adverse effects on biological agents
Scanning electron microscopy mainly observes the erosion and peeling of the inner surface of the glass bottle, and can also analyze the chemical liquid filter. We use the Feiner desktop scanning electron microscope to observe the surface of the glass bottle, as shown in Figure 1. The left picture shows the inner surface of the glass bottle corroded by the liquid medicine, and the right picture shows the inner surface of the glass bottle with a long erosion time. The liquid reacts with the glass bottle, and the smooth inner surface is corroded. Long-term corrosion will cause a large area of chipping. Once the medicinal solution after these reactions is injected into the patient’s body, it will have an adverse effect on the patient’s health.