A differential kinetic method utilizing a stopped-flow FIA system is proposed for the simultaneous determination of cobalt and nickel at sub-ppm levels in mixtures. The method is based on the large difference in the rates of the ligand substitution reaction of the metal complexes of 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-(N-propyl-N-sulfopropylamino)aniline (PSAA) with nitrilotriacetic acid. The apparent reaction rate for the Ni-PSAA complex is more than 100 times larger than that for Co-PSAA complex. The relative standard deviations in the analysis of binary mixture of 0.50 #g/ml cobalt and 0.30 #g/ml nickel were 1o9% and 2.1%, respectively (n = 7). The sample throughput is about 20 h -1. The effect of various ions was also studied. The proposed method has satisfactorily been applied to synthetic samples containing different ratios of cobalt and nickel 1/12 to 10/1. Some heterocyclic azo compounds have been developed as highly sensitive spectrophotometric reagents of metals over the past 20 years [-1-6-]. Recently, some efforts to develop water-soluble compounds of the same type [-7-11] have been made since water solubility offer an improvement in simplicity, rapidity, and accuracy in the determination by eliminating the need of solvent extraction or avoiding the use of a surfactant or a water miscible organic solvent. This water-soluble property is also of interest for application in flow-injection analysis (FIA). 2-(5-Bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-(N-propyl-N-sulfopropylamino)aniline (PSAA) [-11] is one of the chromogenic synthesized reagents which form water-soluble complexes with Co(II), Ni(II), Fe(II), and Cu(II) having molar absorptivities of 105 or close to this level. These metal complexes, however, show highly overlapped absorption spectra in the