A unique approach in designing resilient bi-functional nano-electrocatalysts based on ultrafine bimetallic nanoparticles dispersed in carbon nanospheres Ravi Nandan, [a] and Karuna Kar Nanda* [a] a Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore – 560012, India. Fax: +91-80-2360 7316 ; Tel: +91-080-2293 2996; *E-mail: nanda@mrc.iisc.ernet.in Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Journal of Materials Chemistry A. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017