For ppm (the same approach can be followed for ppb)
1000 g = 1 kg
1000 mg = 1 g
1 mg/L = 1 ppm
1000 mg/g
1000kg/L
1kg/L
and 1 kg = 1 L
so 1 mg/L = 1 ppm
.01% = 1 ppm
1% = 100 ppm
Generally:
ppm = parts per million
grams/milliliter = g/ml = milligrams/microliter = mg/ul
1ug /ml = 1mg/l = 1ppm
ppm = ug/g =ug/ml = ng/mg = pg/ug = 10
-6 ppm = mg/liter of water1 g / 1000ml = 1000 ppm
PPB = Parts per billion = ng/g = ng/ml = pg/mg = 10
-9 Please note my notation says-
IN WATER. So for clarification purposes:
:
Parts Per Million. (ppm) Concentration expressed as parts of solute per million parts of solution. Usually refers to parts per million by mass. For example, a 10 ppm NaCl solution can be written as: 10 mg NaCl/kg solution, 10 µg NaCl/g solution, 10 ng NaCl/mg solution. In very dilute aqueous solutions, ppm is approximately equal to mg solute per liter of solution.
Parts Per Billion (ppb)Definition:
A weight to weight ratio used to describe concentrations. Parts per billion (ppb) is the number of units of mass of a contaminant per 1000 million units of total mass.
Also µg/L or micrograms per liter.
ppb (or ppbm) is used to measure the concentration of a contaminant in soils and sediments. In that case 1 ppb equals 1 µg of substance per kg of solid (µg/kg).
ppb (or ppbm) is also sometimes used to describe small concentrations in water, in which case 1 ppb is equivalent to 1 µg/l because a liter of water weighs approximately a 1000 000 µg. This use of ppb tends to be phased out in favour of µg/l.
ppb (or ppbV) is often used to describe concentrations of contaminants in air (as a volume fraction). In this case the conversion of ppb to µg/m3 depends on the molecular weight of the contaminant.
For example, 1 ppb chlorine represents one part of chlorine in one thousand million parts of air by weight, which is 1.45 µg/m3.
References:
http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/glossary/p.shtmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts_per_million