TG-DTA, TEM, and IR were used to investigate the thermal decomposition behavior of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP). The TG-DTA results show that the thermal decomposition behavior of PVP on platinum (Pt) is quite different from that of pure PVP. For pure PVP, 95.25% is decomposed when the temperature is increased up to 500 degrees C; while under the same experimental condition, PVP coated on the Pt nanoparticles is only 66.7% decomposed. This is further supported by IR measurement. TEM results exhibited that the partially decomposed PVP still plays a role in stabilizing Pt nanoparticles: after heating treatment at 500 degrees C for half an hour, the platinum nanoparticles did not aggregate heavily. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.