A novel carbon-supported Pt-V-SnO2 catalyst is prepared by a modified Bonnemann method. Pt/C, PtV/C, and PtSnO2/C are used for comparative analysis to study PtVSnO2/C in terms of its structure and electrocatalytic activity for the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). Characterization of its structural properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is described. It is shown that the Pt lattice parameter decreases with the addition of V but increases with the addition of Sn in the PtVSn/C catalyst. TEM analysis reveals that the prepared catalyst particles are in the nanosize range (2-4 nm). EDS confirms the atomic compositions of the synthesized catalysts to be similar to the nominal values. The electrocatalytic activities are characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and amperometric i-t curve measurement (i-t) techniques. The incorporation of a small amount of V in the PtSnO2/C electrocatalyst leads to higher activity for the ethanol oxidation reaction at room temperature. According to the Arrhenius equation, the apparent activation energy of PtVSnO2/C (3:1:3) for EOR is the lowest among the studied catalysts, which may be attributed to a synergistic effect between Sn and V. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.