Adsorption of palladium phthalocyanines complexes on single walled carbon nanotubes was carried out. The resulting composites were employed as catalysts for heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in aqueous media. Singlet oxygen was found to be involved in the phototransformation of 4-NP. Gas chromatographic separation gave hydroquinone and benzoquinone as the phototransformation products. Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model was employed to evaluate the adsorption and desorption equilibria of the reactants and the products. 2,3,9,10,16,17,23,24-octakis(dodecylthiophthalocyaninato) palladium(II) and 1,4,8,11,15,18,22,25-octakis(dodecylthio phthalocyaninato) palladium, containing the longest alkyl chain gave the best performances. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.