Department of Chemistry, North Bengal University, Darjeeling-734 430 Manuscript received 27 November 1986, revised 11 December 1987, accepted 30 December 1987 A simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for palladium has been developed by utilising the colour reaction of palladium(II) with p-nitrosodimethylaniline in aqueous medium. A deep brown PdII-complex is formed over a wide range of pH 0 - 10. The system tolerates a large excess of foreign ions. The apparent molar absorptivity of the 1 : 2 (M : R) complex is 7.7 x 104 dm3 mol-1 cm-1, and Sandell's sensitivity is 1.4 ng cm-2 at 495 nm. The metal has been determined in synthetic mixtures.