Nanosized Pt particles deposited on plasma treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes have been used in electrocatalytic oxidation of ethanol in a basic solution. These Pt nanoparticles have very narrow size distribution and exhibit significant higher catalytic activities, higher Pt utilization efficiency (93.77%) and improved durability in comparison to the commercial available Johnson Matthey Pt/C catalyst. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.