It is a bright yellow crystalline solid that becomes brown upon decomposition in air.

The four phosphorus atoms are at the corners of a tetrahedron surrounding the palladium(0) center.

[3] Tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) was first prepared by Lamberto Malatesta et al. in the 1950s by reduction of sodium chloropalladate with hydrazine in the presence of the phosphine.

[6] The compound is sensitive to air, but can be purified by washing with methanol to give the desired yellow powder.

These processes begin with two successive ligand dissociations followed by the oxidative addition of an aryl halide to the Pd(0) center: