Catalytic activity of nanoalloys from gold and palladium.

We present a quantitative study of the catalytic activity of well-defined faceted gold-palladium nanoalloys which are immobilized on cationic spherical polyelectrolyte brushes. The spherical polyelectrolyte brush particles used as carriers for the nanoalloys consist of a solid polystyrene core onto which cationic polyelectrolyte chains of 2-aminoethyl methacrylate are attached. Au/Pd nanoalloy particles with sizes in the range from 1 to 3 nm have been generated which are homogeneously distributed on the surface of the spherical polyelectrolyte brushes.