A simple and facile method is described for the morphology-controlled synthesis of bimetallic Au–Pd alloyed nanochain networks (NNCs) that show high catalytic performance for the Ullmann intermolecular homocoupling of aromatic or alkyl halides (X = I, Br, Cl) in aqueous media and can be reused at least five times, which can also be applied to intramolecular homocoupling.