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Conversion

Gas Concentration Converter (ppm ↔ mg/m³)

Two conventions report trace gas concentrations in air: volume mixing ratio "ppm" (parts per million by volume) and mass concentration "mg/m³" (milligrams per cubic metre). They are not a fixed ratio — the conversion depends on the gas's molecular weight M (g/mol) and the current molar volume V_m (L/mol), which is itself a function of temperature and pressure via V_m = R·T / p. Enter the concentration, choose a gas (or enter a custom molecular weight) and set T and p (default 25 °C, 101.325 kPa — the NIOSH / OSHA standard); the tool converts in both directions and shows the matching 1 ppm = X mg/m³ factor.

Result (mg/m³)

1799

Molar volume V_m at current T, p

24.466 L/mol

Conversion factor M ÷ V_m

1 ppm ↔ 1.799 mg/m³

i.e. how many mg/m³ corresponds to 1 ppm (proportional to pressure, inversely proportional to absolute temperature).

Formula

c[mg/m³] = c[ppm] × M / V_m
V_m = R·T / p (R = 8.3145 L·kPa/(mol·K), T in K)

The conversion uses the ideal-gas law pV = nRT and defaults to 25 °C, 101.325 kPa (the NIOSH Pocket Guide convention). The approximation is excellent for trace gases mixed in air; for concentrated gases (≥ 1 % v/v) or extreme T / p you may see a few-percent deviation from real-gas behaviour.

Formula

c[mg/m³] = c[ppm] × M / V_m c[ppm] = c[mg/m³] × V_m / M V_m = R·T / p R = 8.3145 L·kPa/(mol·K), T in K, p in kPa

Frequently asked

Why does "1 ppm" convert to a different mg/m³ for each gas?

Because "ppm" is a volume (mole) ratio while "mg/m³" is a mass measurement. Turning "how many molecules" into "how many milligrams" requires multiplying by the mass of each molecule — the molecular weight M. So 1 ppm of CO (M = 28.01) is 1.15 mg/m³, but 1 ppm of SO₂ (M = 64.07) is 2.62 mg/m³. By the same logic, how many molecules fit in 1 m³ depends on T and p (V_m = R·T/p), so the same gas converts ~9 % differently at 25 °C vs 0 °C (V_m = 24.466 vs 22.414 L/mol). The tool refreshes the conversion factor as soon as you change the gas, the temperature or the pressure.

My office CO₂ reads 1 500 ppm — does that exceed the ASHRAE limit?

ASHRAE 62.1 has no absolute CO₂ ceiling, but the indoor-air community widely uses "≤ 700 ppm above outdoor ambient" as a target. Outdoor CO₂ today is ~420 ppm, so the target maps to roughly 1 120 ppm indoors (~2 016 mg/m³ via this tool). At 1 500 ppm (≈ 2 700 mg/m³) you are above that guideline — a sign of under-ventilation and high occupancy — but still far below the occupational PEL (OSHA 5 000 ppm = 9 000 mg/m³ as an 8-hour TWA). Practical fixes: open windows, raise outdoor-air supply or upgrade filtration to MERV 13. Studies (Allen et al., EHP 2016) show concentration and decision-making degrade slightly above ~1 000 ppm — a productivity rather than safety concern.

Why do OSHA PEL and ACGIH TLV tables sometimes list ppm and sometimes mg/m³?

Industrial gases (CO, O₃, NO₂, formaldehyde, VOCs) span a wide range of molecular weights (17 to 200+ g/mol), so reporting in ppm — a mass-independent volume ratio — makes them comparable across compounds; standards usually list ppm and mg/m³ side-by-side for gases. For particulates (lead dust, silica, cotton fibre) and aerosols (diesel exhaust, welding fume) there is no gas-phase molecular weight to apply, so OSHA / ACGIH report only mg/m³ or µg/m³. This tool handles gas-phase conversions only; particulate exposures already arrive in mg/m³. In real-world ventilation design and instrument reading (photoacoustic CO detectors output ppm, ICP-MS heavy metals output µg/m³), keeping the unit consistent at every step is the key to avoiding tenfold errors.

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