The structural characteristics of catalyst such as size and shape are very important to the catalytic activity and selectivity. In this work, based on density functional theory, O-2 adsorption and dissociation on SiC nanotubes and nanosheet are studied systematically. The results show that O-2 adsorption and dissociation are highly sensitive to the surface curvature of SiC nanomaterials. Both the O-2 adsorption energy and dissociation activation barrier energy increase as the curvature varying from negative to positive. These results may open a new avenue for modulating reaction dynamics via surface curvature. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.