A facile and mild method for the preparation of platinum(II) porphyrin complexes is reported. A simple treatment of free-base porphyrins with 1.5 equiv of [PtCl2(PhCN)(2)] in the presence of sodium propionate in reftwdng chlorobenzene (bp: 131 degrees C) affords the corresponding Pt(E) complexes in good yields within a few hours. Furthermore, the work-up processes for our methods are less complex than those for the reported ones because chlorobenzene can be easily removed by simple evaporation.