The mimetic underpotential deposition (MUPD) technique without external potential control has been newly extended for surface decorations of Pb sub-monolayer on Pt (denoted as Pt@Pb), Pt (sub)monolayer on Au (denoted as Au@Pt), and Pt-Pd mixed monolayer on Pd (denoted as Pd@Pt Pd), respectively, by introducing appropriate reducing agents in decorating baths. The carbon black-supported Pt@Pb catalyst (denoted as Pt@Pb/C) is obtained simply through the Pb MUPD on Pt/C whereas the Au@Pt and the Pd@Pd-Pt/C catalysts are obtained through the Cu MUPD followed a subsequent galvanic redox replacement. The electro-oxidation of formic acid is used as a model reaction to verify the effectiveness of such surface modifications. The tremendously enhanced activities on various electrocatalysts demonstrate that the extended MUPD approach is promising for scale-up skin modification on nanocatalysts with foreign adatoms. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.