In the present study, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) decorated with Pd, PdAg and PdAgCu nanocatalysts with various Cu content have been synthesized by a wet chemical route. These catalysts are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron spectroscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and chronoamperometry (CA). After suffering an efficient electrochemical leaching activation, the post-activated Pd25Ag25Cu50/CNTs catalyst demonstrates the best catalytic activities toward common small organic molecules oxidation reaction including methanol, ethanol and formic acid. Apart from the triggered high electrochemical active surface area (S-EAS) owing to surface reconstruction via Cu depletion, the widespread geometric donation (i.e., lattice mismatch, strain, defect and/or dislocations) and strengthened electronic interaction between Pd, Ag and residual buried Cu should play significant roles in the catalytic activity enhancement. It also evidences that the annealing toward as-synthesized catalyst results in a significant decrease of S-EAS value, thus engendering a degradation on the mass activities of electrocatalytic oxidation reaction toward small organic molecules. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.