As shown in the literature, most of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized from precursors of commercial Pt salts. However, the impurity of the commercial Pt salts is a concerned issue. In this work, we report a new pathway based on electrochemical methods to prepare Pt-containing complexes with high purity in aqueous solutions from bulk Pt substrates. Experimental results indicate that Pt complexes with higher concentration can be obtained in 0.1 N HCl by using square-wave oxidation-reduction cycles (ORCs) under a frequency of 8 Hz with a step potential of 6.3 mV. Moreover, concentrations of other heavy metals of Hg and Cr in 65 ppm Pt complexes-containing solution are just 0.65 and 0.78 ppb, respectively. These Pt complexes were further reduced to Pt NPs by using NaBH4 and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as reducing agent and stabilizer, respectively. The concentration and the particle size of synthesized Pt (1 1 1) NPs are ca. 60 ppm and smaller than 5 nm, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.