Functional platinum-based carbonous nanostructures play important roles in exploring new electrode materials by constructing sensitive and selective platform in the electrochemical detection. In recent years, intense research efforts have focused on boosting the performance of platinum with desirable activity and stability. This work reports a facile strategy for the synthesis of platinum-based nitrogendoped porous CxN1-x compounds (Pt-pC(x)N(1-x)) with excellent enzyme-like activity. In the strategy, Pt-pC(x)N(1-x) was simply prepared by in situ synthesis through a one-step microwave-assisted heating procedure, resulting with subnanometer-size (similar to 2.5 nm) platinum-based nanoparticles (Pt-BNPs) loaded on the multi-dimensional CxN1-x structure. Due to the enriched edge and corner atoms, Pt-pC(x)N(1-x) showed excellent intrinsic peroxidase-like activity. Meanwhile, it was demonstrated that Pt-pC(x)N(1-x) possessed a lower Michaelis Constant (K-m = 0.104) compared with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) (K-m = 0.416) in the presence of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Moreover, the Pt-pC(x)N(1-x) behaved better property and lower cost in H2O2 electrochemical detection compared with the pC(x)N(1-x) and Pt-BNPs. The detection results exhibited a low detection limit (2.29 mu M) and a wide linear range (0.025 to 5.725 mM), which revealed its superior potential in H2O2 electrochemical detection. Therefore, the Pt-pC(x)N(1-x) may find a potential application in constructing electrochemical biosensors. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.