Concentration Units

Chemicals in Liquid Sample:

Expressed as mass of chemical / total volume of sample

mass/volume (m/v) unit: mg/L, g/L, ng/L, g/m3, kg/m3 etc.

Parts per million (ppm) is an unit of m/m. It is measured as 1 g mass of

chemical A exists within 106 g mass of the mixture.
For freshwater or liquids with density, =1 g/mL, the following unit
conversion is valid 1 mg/L = 1 ppm, 1 g/L = 1 ppb, 1 ng/L = 1 ppt
ppm = 1000 ppb = 1,000,000 ppt

Concentration Units

Concentration Units

Concentration Units

For gaseous samples

Note: At 1 atm pressure and 0 C, 20 C, 25 C, the molar volume of any gas is

22.4 L, 24 L, and 24.5 L respectively.

At 25 C and 1 atm: Conversion of v/v concentration to m/v concentration:
Concentration

(mg.m-3)

Concentration (g.m-3) =

Concentration (ng m-3) =

Concentration (ppmv) x MW
24.5

Concentration (ppbv) x MW
24.5
Concentration (pptv) x MW
24.5

Where, MW= molar mass of the gas

Avogadro hypothesis problem

3. How many liters of space are occupied by 41.3 g of SO2 gas at STP?

4. How many atoms have in 1.5 moles of C6H12O6?

5. Identify the diatomic gas with density of 3.17 g/L?

6. How many liters are occupied by 3.75x1020 gas molecules?

Question
Example 7: Maximum contaminant level (MCL) according to the US EPA
for 2,3,7,8-TCDD (dioxin) in drinking water is 0.00000003 mg/L. Convert
this concentration to ppt and molarity (M). What is the equivalent
number of dioxin molecules per liter of water? The molecular weight of
dioxin is 322 g/mol
Convert to ppt:
0.00000003 mg/L = 3 x 10-8 mg/L = 3 x 10-8 ppm
Since 1 ppm = 106 ppt
3 x 10-8 ppm x 106 ppt/ppm = 0.03 ppt
Convert to molarity:
0.00000003 mg/L x 1 g/1000mg x 1 mol/322 g = 9.32 x 10-14 mol/L

= 9.32 x 10-14 M

Question
Example 8: Maximum contaminant level (MCL) according to the US EPA for
2,3,7,8-TCDD (dioxin) in drinking water is 0.00000003 mg/L. Convert this
concentration to ppt and molarity (M). What is the equivalent number of
dioxin molecules per liter of water? The molecular weight of dioxin is 322
g/mol
Convert to number of molecules:
= 9.32 x 10-14 mol/L x 6.022 x 1023 molecules/mol = 5.61 x 1010 molecules / L
56.1 billion dioxin molecules per liter

Understanding Quiz: According to National Ambient Air Quality Standard of USA

(30oC temperature and 1 atm pressure), the highest NO2 concentration in ambient
air is 0.053 ppm.
a) What would be the equivalent mass concentration of NO2 in g/L at USA?
b) What would be the equivalent mass concentration of NO2 in mg/L in Muscat
where the average air temperature is 40o C and pressure is 0.95 atm.
c) Will the air quality standard fixed at USA be perfectly suitable for Muscat?
Explain?