Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg? Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 00:00UTC (8:00pm US/Eastern)IUPAC Recommendations for Concentration Units (ppb, ppm)How to determine the concentration after a dilution with Beer's law?What would be SMILES notation for a compound with delocalized bonding?Amount of substance of a molecule in a solute the same as amount of substance of constituent elements?Interpreting notation format 1.64E-02 from particulate emission dataWhat was the lithium concentration in 1940's 7-Up?Why are osmoles not considered SI units?Why is Ka constant when volume is increased?Should residual sodium be considered in measuring sodium content of sweat?Concentration of mercury in bodyConversion from a PPB value to µg/m3 of Isobutylene

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Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg?



Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara
Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 00:00UTC (8:00pm US/Eastern)IUPAC Recommendations for Concentration Units (ppb, ppm)How to determine the concentration after a dilution with Beer's law?What would be SMILES notation for a compound with delocalized bonding?Amount of substance of a molecule in a solute the same as amount of substance of constituent elements?Interpreting notation format 1.64E-02 from particulate emission dataWhat was the lithium concentration in 1940's 7-Up?Why are osmoles not considered SI units?Why is Ka constant when volume is increased?Should residual sodium be considered in measuring sodium content of sweat?Concentration of mercury in bodyConversion from a PPB value to µg/m3 of Isobutylene










15












$begingroup$


In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







$endgroup$







  • 8




    $begingroup$
    Just using ppb is ambiguous unless you state the basis (eg w/w for mass %). ppb could also be referring to molar proportion or volume proportion.
    $endgroup$
    – matt_black
    Apr 15 at 8:56















15












$begingroup$


In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







$endgroup$







  • 8




    $begingroup$
    Just using ppb is ambiguous unless you state the basis (eg w/w for mass %). ppb could also be referring to molar proportion or volume proportion.
    $endgroup$
    – matt_black
    Apr 15 at 8:56













15












15








15


1



$begingroup$


In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







$endgroup$




In an article I recently submitted, a reviewer asked that I provide a concentration in μg/kg instead of ppb (parts per billion), and mentions that the later is not correct. I am not a chemist, and I thought that 1 μg/kg = 1 ppb.



Is 1 ppb equal to 1 μg/kg ? What is a reason to consider ppb as incorrect ?







concentration notation units






share|improve this question









New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Apr 15 at 1:32









andselisk

19.7k665128




19.7k665128






New contributor




Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked Apr 15 at 1:18









NakxNakx

1816




1816




New contributor




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New contributor





Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Nakx is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







  • 8




    $begingroup$
    Just using ppb is ambiguous unless you state the basis (eg w/w for mass %). ppb could also be referring to molar proportion or volume proportion.
    $endgroup$
    – matt_black
    Apr 15 at 8:56












  • 8




    $begingroup$
    Just using ppb is ambiguous unless you state the basis (eg w/w for mass %). ppb could also be referring to molar proportion or volume proportion.
    $endgroup$
    – matt_black
    Apr 15 at 8:56







8




8




$begingroup$
Just using ppb is ambiguous unless you state the basis (eg w/w for mass %). ppb could also be referring to molar proportion or volume proportion.
$endgroup$
– matt_black
Apr 15 at 8:56




$begingroup$
Just using ppb is ambiguous unless you state the basis (eg w/w for mass %). ppb could also be referring to molar proportion or volume proportion.
$endgroup$
– matt_black
Apr 15 at 8:56










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















33












$begingroup$

You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



$$
beginarraylllll
hline
textName & textSymbol & textValue & textExamples & textReplacement \
hline
ldots & & & & \
textpart per billion & textppb & 10^-9 & textThe air quality standard for ozone is a & punmol/mol \
& & & textvolume fraction of~varphi = 120~textppb & \
ldots & & & & \
hline
endarray
$$




References



  1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)





share|improve this answer











$endgroup$








  • 7




    $begingroup$
    Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
    $endgroup$
    – Loong
    Apr 15 at 6:59






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
    $endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Apr 15 at 19:08










  • $begingroup$
    @ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 19:39










  • $begingroup$
    @M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
    $endgroup$
    – andselisk
    Apr 15 at 19:49










  • $begingroup$
    @andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 20:38











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1 Answer
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active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









33












$begingroup$

You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



$$
beginarraylllll
hline
textName & textSymbol & textValue & textExamples & textReplacement \
hline
ldots & & & & \
textpart per billion & textppb & 10^-9 & textThe air quality standard for ozone is a & punmol/mol \
& & & textvolume fraction of~varphi = 120~textppb & \
ldots & & & & \
hline
endarray
$$




References



  1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)





share|improve this answer











$endgroup$








  • 7




    $begingroup$
    Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
    $endgroup$
    – Loong
    Apr 15 at 6:59






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
    $endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Apr 15 at 19:08










  • $begingroup$
    @ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 19:39










  • $begingroup$
    @M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
    $endgroup$
    – andselisk
    Apr 15 at 19:49










  • $begingroup$
    @andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 20:38















33












$begingroup$

You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



$$
beginarraylllll
hline
textName & textSymbol & textValue & textExamples & textReplacement \
hline
ldots & & & & \
textpart per billion & textppb & 10^-9 & textThe air quality standard for ozone is a & punmol/mol \
& & & textvolume fraction of~varphi = 120~textppb & \
ldots & & & & \
hline
endarray
$$




References



  1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)





share|improve this answer











$endgroup$








  • 7




    $begingroup$
    Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
    $endgroup$
    – Loong
    Apr 15 at 6:59






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
    $endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Apr 15 at 19:08










  • $begingroup$
    @ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 19:39










  • $begingroup$
    @M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
    $endgroup$
    – andselisk
    Apr 15 at 19:49










  • $begingroup$
    @andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 20:38













33












33








33





$begingroup$

You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



$$
beginarraylllll
hline
textName & textSymbol & textValue & textExamples & textReplacement \
hline
ldots & & & & \
textpart per billion & textppb & 10^-9 & textThe air quality standard for ozone is a & punmol/mol \
& & & textvolume fraction of~varphi = 120~textppb & \
ldots & & & & \
hline
endarray
$$




References



  1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)





share|improve this answer











$endgroup$



You are correct suggesting that 1 μg/kg implies 1 ppb, however the reverse is not true. For instance, 1 ppb can also be 1 nmol/mol, and the reader will never have a chance to deduce which one is it unless you explicitly define the usage of the "parts per something" in the text.
This clutters the manuscript with redundant notes and causes overall confusion.



IUPAC also lists all similar symbols (ppm, ppt, ppb etc.) as deprecated; from IUPAC's “Green Book” [1, p. 98]:




Although ppm, ppb, ppt and alike are widely used in various applications of
analytical and environmental chemistry, it is suggested to abandon completely their use because of the ambiguities involved. These units are unnecessary and can be easily replaced by SI-compatible quantities such as pmol/mol (picomole per mole), which are unambiguous. The last column contains suggested replacements (similar replacements can be formulated as mg/g, μg/g, pg/g etc.).



$$
beginarraylllll
hline
textName & textSymbol & textValue & textExamples & textReplacement \
hline
ldots & & & & \
textpart per billion & textppb & 10^-9 & textThe air quality standard for ozone is a & punmol/mol \
& & & textvolume fraction of~varphi = 120~textppb & \
ldots & & & & \
hline
endarray
$$




References



  1. IUPAC “Green Book” Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd ed.; Cohen, R. E., Mills, I., Eds.; IUPAC Recommendations; RSC Pub: Cambridge, UK, 2007. (PDF)






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Apr 15 at 12:40

























answered Apr 15 at 1:31









andseliskandselisk

19.7k665128




19.7k665128







  • 7




    $begingroup$
    Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
    $endgroup$
    – Loong
    Apr 15 at 6:59






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
    $endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Apr 15 at 19:08










  • $begingroup$
    @ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 19:39










  • $begingroup$
    @M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
    $endgroup$
    – andselisk
    Apr 15 at 19:49










  • $begingroup$
    @andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 20:38












  • 7




    $begingroup$
    Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
    $endgroup$
    – Loong
    Apr 15 at 6:59






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
    $endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Apr 15 at 19:08










  • $begingroup$
    @ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 19:39










  • $begingroup$
    @M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
    $endgroup$
    – andselisk
    Apr 15 at 19:49










  • $begingroup$
    @andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
    $endgroup$
    – M. Farooq
    Apr 15 at 20:38







7




7




$begingroup$
Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
$endgroup$
– Loong
Apr 15 at 6:59




$begingroup$
Similarly in the related standard ISO 80000: "Abbreviations such as ppm, pphm, ppb and ppt are language-dependent and ambiguous and shall not be used. Instead, the use of powers of 10 is recommended."
$endgroup$
– Loong
Apr 15 at 6:59




2




2




$begingroup$
This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
$endgroup$
– hBy2Py
Apr 15 at 19:08




$begingroup$
This difficulty with "parts-per" notations should probably be extended to percentages as well (given that, really, 'percent' is just 'parts per hundred'). I can't tell you how many times I've struggled to identify what kind of percentage is meant: % w/w? % w/v? at. %? % v/v? For % v/v, what are the bases? Is 10% one volume A for every 9 volumes of B? For every 10 volumes of B? For 10 volumes of final mixture/solution? Headaches, headaches, headaches, every dang time.
$endgroup$
– hBy2Py
Apr 15 at 19:08












$begingroup$
@ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
$endgroup$
– M. Farooq
Apr 15 at 19:39




$begingroup$
@ andselisk, I am slightly confused by this new recommendation. My question is related to the denominator in nmol/mols. Suppose I prepare 100 ppb NaCl in water. Do I have 100 nmol of NaCl in 1 mol of water? How we practically prepare it. What if my solvent is a mixture such as air. How will we calculate moles of air? This new definition does not seem to be any better than the previous ones.
$endgroup$
– M. Farooq
Apr 15 at 19:39












$begingroup$
@M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
$endgroup$
– andselisk
Apr 15 at 19:49




$begingroup$
@M.Farooq I'm not sure I understand, and this is not a novel directive, part-per-somehing has never been a favored/preferred notation as long as I remember myself. ppb is just a fraction, use whatever quantities of the same dimensions; you have to find out the amounts to calculate ppb anyways, why is this suddenly a problem?
$endgroup$
– andselisk
Apr 15 at 19:49












$begingroup$
@andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
$endgroup$
– M. Farooq
Apr 15 at 20:38




$begingroup$
@andselisk, I am actually wondering about different scenarios. There is a very subtle difference in using nmol/mol vs. ug/kg. The typical definition of ppb is ug X in a kg of solution not the solvent. 100 ppb NaCl in water mean 100 ug NaCl "in" 1 liter of water solution. The total volume is 1 L. The analyte is a part of the solvent weight. With 100 ppm NaCl as 100 nmol NaCl dissolved in 1 mol water. In this case, NaCl is not a part of solvent. Similarly if I have a mixture as a solvent, whose moles should we use? The 1 L and kg definition do not care about the identity of the solvent system.
$endgroup$
– M. Farooq
Apr 15 at 20:38










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