Abstract Chemical displacement of palladium by mercury at the DME, has been found to be quantitative (that is, instantaneous and proportional to the id of mercury). Therefore the mercury(I) wave has been exploited for the indirect estimation of palladium using the DME. The conditions of estimation are standardized and the method applied to a mixture (dental alloy) containing palladium. The results are within experimental accuracy. The indirect method has certain advantages over the direct methods.