Lyophilized powder vials

[jrod]

I’m trying to upload a picture of some peptide vials I have. Out of all the vials I bought, 3 of them the powder looks like it shrunk while the rest have normal size powder cakes in them.
Anyone know if that happens during the process or if it’s just less product in there.
I’ve cropped the picture several times but it says file too large.

 

[jrod]

This

 

[BigTex]

Each peptide aliquot or premeasured portion gets dropped into a vial by the machine, then the vial gets stoppered and loaded into the lyophilizer. Once it’s inside, they run a nitrogen flush to clear out any junk. This step basically decides how the stuff is going to look in the end.

Sometimes the water just skips the liquid stage and goes straight from ice to vapor. When that happens, the material sticks to the sides of the vial and you can barely see anything. This explains why the sides of the vial are hazy. Other times, depending on temperature and a few other factors, it might look like a solid puck, a few little chunks, a powder, or just a couple of specks. Either way, the actual amount inside is the same—it just shows up differently.