The initial stages of palladium deposition onto Au(111) from 0.1 M HNO3 + 0.2mM Pd(NO3)(2) have been studied by cyclic voltammetry and in situ scanning tunnelling microscopy. It is demonstrated that nucleation starts exclusively at surface defects such as monoatomic high steps, which is at variance with recently published work. From this and our previous work it thus appears that surface defects are the preferred nucleation sites indeed for nitrate, sulphate and chloride containing solutions. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.