Influence of Vial Type and Filling Height

In order to properly observe the influence of vial type and size, Hottot et al. (2006a) filled the vials with different solution volumes to maintain the same initial height of solution at the beginning of the freezing step, namely h = 6.7 mm. The distribution curves of the ice crystal diameters obtained for a standard freezing protocol are presented in Fig. 3.11. 

The reported distribution curves represent all data gained by cutting frozen formulations at three different levels, namely at the top, the middle and the bottom of the frozen sample. The authors observed that the mean ice crystal diameters were larger for 7 and 5 ml vials than for 4 ml vials and that the distributions were rather equal for 5 and 7ml vials (Hottot et al, 2006a). 

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