Introduction

After many years of only using glass, we have sourced a suitable plastic alternative to add to our range. Although we prefer glass, we realise good quality plastic is more than suitable for medium to high consumption user & even as a low cost refill. We are all aware costs are rising quickly and this will help us to be able to supply our high quality solution at a resonable price.

Overview

PET stands for PolyEthylene Tetraphthalate and is a common type of plastic. It is cheaper to produce and transport. As I hope you know by now, we are a quality company and only produce the highest quality solutions which is why we have always used glass.

Unfortunately glass is heavy and fragile. It also takes more packaging to ensure safe transport, has a high energy cost both in manufacture and recycling, so we decided to stay with glass until now.

So what is the difference between glass & plastic? It's the thickness of the wall of the bottle. Thats all! For those that were actually awake when your physics teacher was explaining the theory of dielectric leakage in capacitors, you will already know the answer! For the rest of you, please pay attention!

Actually its quite simple. Everything that has a charge will eventually discharge. This is called leakage. Dielectric is the stuff between the + side and the - side, which could be anything such as air, water, glass, plastic etc. Both glass and plastic are excellent insulators BUT the wall of a glass bottle is many times thicker than a plastic bottle so its leakage is much less.

We've located a bottle manufacturer that makes a much thicker wall than normal bottles so our solution will keep twice as long! That's good enough for our solutions & we're introducing this as our standard refill bottle in January 2012. We will always use glass in our starter kits & glass will always be available but because of cost, it will be a premium range.

Full article

In Colloidal Silver, there are two silver components. One is ionic and the other is particulate. An ion is an atom that has gained or lost an electron. A silver atom has a single electron in its outer shell/orbit but when it loses it, becomes a silver ion with a +ve atomic (Ionic) charge. Particulate silver is a clump of metallic silver atoms that are not dissolved but are suspended in the colloid and has a small negative electrostatic charge called Zeta potential.

All electrostatic charges, by the laws of physics, tend to leak or discharge over time. This is known as dielectric leakage. There are many factors that cause this but the container, in our opinion, is vital. Glass is an excellent insulator but there again PET plastic is nearly as good. The main difference is that the walls of a PET bottle are much thinner than the equivalent glass by a factor of 5 to ten times. The rate of leakage is dependent on the dielectric constant of the material and the distance between the two charges or in this case the Zeta potential and "Earth" on the outside of the bottle. This is very similar to the theory of capacitors which is taught in GCSE Physics and probably most people can relate to this, if you were awake at the time !

Light also accelerate this process. The particulate silver in Colloidal Silver is in a fine balance between the repulsive forces of the Zeta potential and the attractive forces of the inter molecular (Van der Waals) forces. When this balance has been achieved the solution is in equilibrium. Light is made up of photons. Photons can knock electrons out of their orbits, as achieved in photo voltaic (Solar) cells but there are other consideration such as electromagnetic interaction. We've pasted an extract from Wikipedia below.

Electromagnetic interaction is a fundamental force of nature and is felt by charged leptons and quarks. Its exchange particle is the photon (symbol ·) and the many forms of electromagnetic radiation are a manifestation of this interaction.

Rutherford scattering showed that the electromagnetic field has a greater range than the weak or strong fields due to the photons having no mass, and travelling at the speed of light. The fact that photons have no mass makes them easy to produce, and charged particles usually interact electromagnetically before other fields have a chance to operate.

Electromagnetic interactions are long range attractions or repulsions between any particles or antiparticles that have charge. If the particles are attracted they stay together, because there is a continual exchange of photons.

What ever the mechanism, to preserve the delicate Zeta potential , the lack of stray photons must be desirable. In a completely ionic solution, this will not be a problem but then an ionic solution is just silver water and NOT a colloid & therefore not Colloidal Silver.

Also

There have been some recent media articles suggesting that certain chemicals can "Leach" out from the walls of a plastic container, contaminating the contents. Some research suggest that this is due to the porosity of the plastic and silver reacting with the plastic. Glass doesn't react, so it is the best medium for long term storage. Bisphenol A is often mentioned but this is to do with polycarbonates not PET. See here

The main reasons PET plastic is used are:-

• Plastic is cheaper to purchase.
• Its flexibility means less packaging is required to prevent breakages.
• As it is significantly lighter, shipping costs are less.
• Less energy is used throughout its life cycle and is kinder to the environment
  

We conclude that glass is always the best but plasitc is quite acceptable as a refill and for short term/high volume use.