In this paper, we present a straightforward and environmentally friendly aqueous-phase synthesis of small Pd nanoparticles (approximately 2.4 nm under the best stabilization) by employing a "green", inexpensive, and biodegradable/ biocompatible polysugar, sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), as a capping agent. The Pd nanoparticles exhibited rather high catalytic activity (observed pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic rate constant, k(obs), is up to 828 L g(-1) min(-1)) for the hydrodechlorination of environmentally deleterious trichloroethene (TCE) in water. Fourier transform IR (FT-IR) spectra indicate that CIVIC molecules interact with the Pd nanoparticles via both carboxyl (-COO-) and hydroxyl (-OH) groups, thereby functioning to passivate the surface and suppress the growth of the Pd nanoparticles. Hydrodechlorination of TCE using differently sized CMC-capped I'd nanoparticles as catalyst was systematically investigated in this work. Both the catalytic activity (k(obs)) and the surface catalytic activity (turnover frequency, TOF) of these CMC-capped Pd nanoparticles for TCE degradation are highly size-dependent. This point was further verified by a comparison of the catalytic activities and surface catalytic activities of CMC-capped Pd nanoparticles with those Of P-D-glucose-capped Pd and neat Pd nanoparticles for TCE degradation.