Skip to main content

Nanometers to Angstroms Converter
↔ Convert Å to nm instead

Common Conversions

nm Å
0.05 0.5
0.1 1
0.12 1.2
0.134 1.34
0.154 1.54
0.2 2
0.5 5
1 10
10 100
100 1000
400 4000
589.3 5893
700 7000

Why this conversion matters in chemistry

Going the other way — nm to Å — is the more common conversion in practice, since most modern instruments and software output in nanometers while the stable reference tables for bond lengths and lattice parameters still live in ångströms. Multiply by 10. A C–C bond at 0.154 nm is 1.54 Å, a Na D-line at 589.3 nm is 5893 Å. Both are the same distance; the unit choice is a cultural artifact of which community tabulated the number first. Once you're comfortable swapping between them, reading across literature stops being a mental load.

Formula

Å = nm × 10

Worked Examples

0.154 nm = 1.54 Å

The C–C single bond again, this time written the way crystallography prefers it.

0.096 nm = 0.96 Å

O–H bond length in water. Shorter than a C–H bond because oxygen holds its hydrogen more tightly.

589.3 nm = 5893 Å

Sodium's D-line emission. Visible spectroscopy papers often still report this in ångströms purely out of tradition.

0.134 nm = 1.34 Å

The C=C double bond in ethylene. Noticeably shorter than the 1.54 Å single bond — that's the extra pi-bond contribution to bond order pulling the atoms together.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I convert nanometers to ångströms?
Multiply by 10. 0.154 nm becomes 1.54 Å, 1 nm becomes 10 Å. One of the cleanest decimal shifts in chemistry.
Why do chemists keep using ångströms?
Mostly because atomic-scale distances land naturally in the 1 to 3 Å range, which reads more cleanly than 0.1 to 0.3 nm. X-ray crystallography locked the convention in decades ago and the field has kept it. The unit is named after Anders Jonas Ångström, a 19th-century Swedish physicist whose name also contributes the ring accent that's hard to type.
Is the ångström an SI unit?
Technically no. 1 Å is 10⁻¹⁰ m, which is 0.1 nm or 100 pm, and the SI-recommended unit for atomic-scale distances is the picometre. But the ångström is so deeply entrenched in crystallography and spectroscopy that it's accepted alongside SI without much controversy. IUPAC allows it, journals accept it, software supports it.
What are typical bond lengths in ångströms?
Worth having these in your head: C–H around 1.09 Å, C–C 1.54, C=C 1.34, C≡C 1.20, O–H 0.96, C–O 1.43, C=O 1.23, N–H 1.01. The short lesson is that double bonds are noticeably shorter than single bonds, triples shorter still — bond order pulls atoms closer.