Dendrimer films as matrices for electrochemical fabrication of novel gold/palladium bimetallic nanostructures

Electrodeposition of novel Au/Pd bimetallic nanostructures with dendrimer films as matrices has been reported. The dendrimers exhibited highly open structures arising from protonation of amines and this made them have good penetrability for solvent molecules. The unique properties of dendrimers obviously affected the morphologies and compositions of deposited bimetallic nanostructures compared with those from unmodified surfaces. Field-emitted scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV–vis spectroscopy were used to characterize these nanostructures. The results showed that these bimetallic nanostructures were consisted of many small nanoparticles. Effects of ratios of KAuCl4 and K2PdCl6, electrodeposition time and layer number of assembled dendrimers were thoroughly investigated. At last, electrochemical properties of the bimetallic nanostructures were also studied.