Nano-nickel (n-Ni) is deposited by a pulsed electrodeposition (PED) in the presence of nonionogenic (poly(ethylene glycol), poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone), starch), anionogenic (gum arabic, sodium alginate), cationic (quaternized guar gum), and polyampholytic (polyzwitterionic) poly(dimethylaminoethylmethacryloylpropanesulfonate) (PDMAEMPS) polymers. It is established that, by PED (40 mA/cm(2), t(on) = 1 ms, t(off) = 50 ms, 323 K), the size of the nanocrystalline particles produced in the presence of PDMAEMPS is far less (by a factor of 6-10) than those obtained in the presence of other polymer additives. These comparative results emphasize a new possibility of controlling the nanograin size of the electrodeposited metals by PED. The dramatic difference in the size of the nickel particles and the unique ability of the polyzwitterionic (PZI) additives are connected by the specific for the polyzwitterionic macromolecular conformation response to the pulsatile electric potential. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.