A highly sensitive transient absorption spectrometer was developed and applied to the trace analysis of a solution sample. For a cyclohexane solution of C-60, the triplet-triplet absorption of a 5.7x 10(-10) mol dm(-3) (570 pM) solution could be detected. A linear relation between absorbance change and solution concentration obtained for solution concentrations between 5 M and 500 pM. The solubility of C-60 in polar solvents could be estimated from this relationship. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.