AbstractA new sensitive method has been proposed for the determination of lead in some single‐ and double‐base propellants. The method is based on the color reaction of lead(II) with hematoxylin in presence of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. At pH 8.0, the formed ternary system possesses an absorption maximum at 605 nm with a molar absorptivity of 5.5 × 104l· mol−1· cm−1. The system adheres to Beer's law up to 1.78 ppm of lead, and the sensitivity index is 0.0039 μg · cm2. The susceptibility of interference of common ions is studied and some masking agent solutions are recommended to improve the selectivity of the method. The proposed method shows good agreement with the results obtained by atomic absorption spectrometry. An average recovery of 99.3% with a standard deviation not exceeding 1.7%