The effect of oxidation treatments to the support on the properties of HCNP-supported platinum catalysts had been investigated. The hollow carbon nanoparticles (HCNP) were modified by oxidative treatments with concentrated nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, respectively. The activities of catalysts were tested using cyclohexane dehydrogenation as probe reaction. Temperature programmed desorption (TPD), IR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the supports and the catalysts. The results show that the HNO3 oxidized sample has the high concentration of oxygen-containing groups on the surface of HCNP, and these surface groups promote anchoring and increase in dispersion of Pt particles on the surface of HCNP with concentrated nitric acid treatment (HCNP-N). The reaction results indicate that the Pt catalyst supported on HCNP-N exhibits excellent activities which can be explained by metal dispersion and the effective active sites for the reaction. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.