Developing novel and efficient electrocatalysts is vital to overcome most of the technical and economic issues associated with the hydrogen production via water electrolysis. Herein, Pd-based alloy nanoparticles, namely AuPd and FePd, assembled on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) are investigated as cathode electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline water electrolysis. TEM, HR-TEM, XRD and ICP-MS are used to carry out the structural and morphological characterisation of the as -prepared rGO-AuPd and rGO-FePd nanocomposites and their electrocatalytic activity and stability is studied by voltammetry and chronoamperometry measurements. rGO-AuPd and rGO-FePd show HER onset overpotentials of 80 and 140 mV, respectively. A Tafel slope of 149 mV dec(-1) is evaluated for rGO-AuPd at 25 degrees C, while rGO-FePd has worse performance. It is shown that rGO-AuPd nanocomposites are good candidates for application as novel electrocatalysts for the HER in alkaline media. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.