The early stages of the palladium electrodeposition process onto a vitreous carbon (VC) substrate as well as the deposition of Cu on such Pd/VC modified surface were investigated using classical electrochemical techniques, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Within the potential range considered the kinetics of the Pd electrodeposition from a PdCl2 acid solution can be described by a model involving progressive nucleation on active sites and diffusion-controlled 3D growth. The nucleation rate constant, A(0), and the number of active sites of the substrate, N-0, were determined from the analysis of potentiostatic current transients on the basis of an existing theoretical model. The AFM images corroborated the progressive nucleation mechanism showing irregular palladium crystals randomly distributed over the VC surface, with different sizes and 3D morphological characteristics. The electrodeposition of Cu was carried out onto the characterized Pd/VC modified surface from a Cu2+ containing solution using a well defined polarization routine. The SEM/EDX images confirmed the formation of Cu/Pd bimetallic crystals uniformly distributed on the VC surface and the in situ AFM images obtained during this process corroborated that Cu formed a core-shell structure with the Pd crystals. Nevertheless, the subsequent anodic stripping produced only a partial dissolution of the Cu deposits, and therefore, the formation of a Cu/Pd alloy could be inferred. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.