Octahedral platinum nanoclusters were successfully prepared by one-pot hydrothermal with the synergetic effect of the glucose and cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide. In this study, the effects of the structure regulator and reaction time on properties of products were reported. Meanwhile the growth mechanism involved in the formation of octahedral platinum nanoclusters has been discussed. Due to its special structure, the octahedral platinum nanoclusters exhibited a better methanol oxidation activity than the commercial Pt/C catalysts, whose mass activity was 1.86 times greater than that of commercial Pt/C. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.