Performance of cathode materials in microbial fuel cell (MFC) from dairy wastewater has been investigated in laboratory tests. Both cyclic voltammogram experiments and MFC tests showed that Pt-Ni cathode much better than pure Pt cathode. MFC with platinum cathode had the maximum power density of 0.180 Wm(-2) while MFC with Pt: Ni (1:1) cathode produced the maximum power density of 0.637 Wm(-2), even if the mass mixing ratio of Pt is lower in the alloy were used. The highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency was around 82-86% in both systems. The cyclic voltammogram (CV) analyses show that Pt: Ni (1:1) offers higher specific surface area than Pt alone does. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) results showed that entire Pt: Ni (1:1) alloys can reduce the oxygen easily than pure platinum, even though less precious metal amount. The main outcome of this study is that Pt-Ni, may serve as a alternative catalyst in MFC applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.