The influence of thermal treatment effect on the methanol oxidation catalytic activities of Pt3Co alloy nanowires prepared by template-assisted pulsed electrodeposition has been investigated. The catalytic activities of Pt3Co nanowires dose not linearly increase as the annealing temperature rises from 200 to 600 degrees C, in which the best catalytic performance appear at 200 degrees C. Meanwhile, the perpendicular coercivity has a weak increase at a mild thermal treatment from 200 to 400 degrees C and a dramatic increase after annealing at 600 degrees C. These results reveal that the thermal treatment has a strong influence on their catalytic and magnetic properties of electrodeposited Pt3Co alloy nanowires and can be exploited as an effective and facile way to achieve excellent magnetic nanocatalyst. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.