Great research attention is raised in the field of direct alcohol fuel cells due to their advantages such as potential for clean, renewability, and high energy density. However, the preparation and optimization of high-efficiency anode electrocatalysts are highly desirable yet challenging, which is an essential part in fuel cells. We thereby design a simple but efficient method and then synthesize a series of novel one dimension PtNi nanorods electrocatalysts. The as-prepared PtNi nanorods exhibit excellent electrocatalytic performance towards alcohol oxidations in alkaline medium. The Pt3Ni nanorods with optimized composition show the best mass and activity of 4601.5 mA mg(-1) (11.4 mA cm(-2)) and 7260 mA mg(-1) (18.1 mA cm(-2)) towards glycerol oxidation reaction and ethylene glycol oxidation reaction respectively, 4.6 (5.4) and 6.1 (7.2) times higher than commercial Pt/C catalysts. The present work in situ offers a practical synthetic approach of electrocatalysts and their better catalytic properties in alcohol oxidation reactions, which has a promoting effect for development of liquid fuel cells.