A Comparative Investigation on Various Platinum Decorated Carbon Supports for Oxygen Reduction Reactions Anand A. Narasimulu, a Dheeraj K Singh, a Navneet Soin, a Gaurav Gupta, b Junfeng Geng a Zhigang Zhu c and J.K. Luo a* a Institute for Materials Research and Innovation, University of Bolton, Deane Road, Bolton BL3 5AB, United Kingdom b School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom c School of Environmental and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, Shanghai Polytechnic University, Shanghai 201209, P. R. China corresponding author email: jl2@bolton.ac.uk . Abstract: Electrochemical performance of pristine carbon supports including graphene nanoplatelets (GNP), graphene oxide (GO) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) for catalysing oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media (0.1M KOH) is reported. The reduction potential (least negative) and the peak current densities for the materials follow the order of MWCNTs>GNP>GO, with the performance of pristine MWCNTs (3 mA/cm 2 ) comparable to that of N- and B-doped MWCNTs. Furthermore, low-loading of platinum nanoparticles on the carbon supports, carried out by microwave-assisted polyol synthesis, led to an increase in the peak reduction current density significantly at lower reduction potentials. Although the same synthesis process was used, the MWCNTs, GO and GNP support samples have different metallic Pt loadings. A comparison of ORR current densities normalized by the mass of Pt loading shows that Pt/MWCNTs have the highest linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) reduction current density of 900A/g, much higher than 510A/g of the commercial Pt-carbon black supports, and is followed by Pt/GNP and Pt/GO which have the LSV value of 500A/g and 200A/g LSV respectively. It is therefore suggested that the Pt/MWCNTs should be given a favourable consideration in ORR for the future development of fuel cell technologies. Keywords: oxygen reduction reaction, electrochemical, fuel cells, carbon support