The synthesis of catalytic metallic nanoparticles continues to be an active research area due to their applications in various technological applications. Palladium metal is a well-known catalyst for various organic transformations including hydrogenation reactions, the Heck reaction and the Stille coupling reaction. Due the expected high reactivity of catalysts on the nanoscale, there exists a great interest in the development of straightforward synthetic approaches for palladium nanoparticles with controlled size, shape and surface structure. Such control will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the structure- and size-dependent catalytic properties of palladium nanoparticles. We have developed a new and attractive approach toward uniform palladium nanoparticles in the 2-50 nm size range using novel palladium organometallic precursors. These precursors are designed such that specific ligands in the coordination sphere could contribute to nanoparticle stabilization during the nucleation process. Under appropriate conditions, pyrolysis of such precursors leads to nanoscale palladium spheres, cubes or diamonds. The presentation will focus on the synthesis and characterization of the organometallic palladium precursors. In addition, we will show synthetic strategies toward control over the size and the shape of the resulting palladium nanoparticles.