In this work, snowflake-like bimetallic PdAu alloy nanostructures with tunable composition and size were large-scaled synthesized at room temperature via a facile wet-chemical strategy. Their morphology and size depend on the composition and concentration of poly(1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazolium bromide) (PVEIB) as the stabilizing agent and structure director. The as-prepared architectures exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability towards ethanol and ethylene glycol oxidation in alkaline media. And snowflake-like Pd1Au3 nanostructures display the best catalytic performance. This is due to the unique snowflake-like structures, alloy nature, and tunable composition and size, along with effectively avoiding the support corrosion usually occurred on commercial catalysts. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.