A highly durable and active nanocomposite cathode catalyst (Pt/NSWCNH) is assembled with "unprotected" Pt nanoclusters and nitrogen-doped single-wall carbon nanohorns (NSWCNH) as building blocks by a convenient process. The specific catalytic activity and mass catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction over Pt/NSWCNH is 1.60 and 1.75 times as high as those over a commercial Pt/C catalyst, respectively. There is no obvious loss in the catalytic activity of Pt/NSWCNH after potential cycling from 0.6 to 1.1 V versus RHE for 15,000 cycles at 30 degrees C, under the oxidizing conditions for the electrochemically catalytic reduction of O-2. TEM characterization results reveal that, during the accelerated aging tests, Pt nanoparticles in Pt/NSWCNH are more stable than that in Pt/C-JM, showing a low increase in the particle size. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.