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Effect of glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface on electrosynthesis of platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) and their catalytic durability for formic acid oxidation was systemically investigated. GCEs were pretreated by mechanical polishing and two electrochemical oxidation methods. Experimental results showed that newly generated oxygen-containing groups at GCE surfaces were unfavorable for early nucleation reaction of Pt, and nucleation sites were those sp2 C aromatic domains, whose features would vary with pretreatment procedures; employment of multi-pluses with high deposition overpotential enabled the electrosynthesis of highly dispersive PtNPs on all the GCE surfaces. The durability of as-prepared PtNPs/GCEs was tested and compared by voltammetric method. It was found that the starting surfaces of GCEs also dominated the morphologic variations of PtNPs and the corrosion behaviors of themselves. Just the electrochemically oxidizing GCE surfaces could absorb Pt cations generated in the cyclic test processes, which could block the redeposition of dissolved Pt cations at PtNPs to retard the formation of inter crystal surfaces; PtNPs on the electrochemically oxidizing GCEs thus had more stable catalytic activity than those on the polished one. The results presented in this study revealed that the adsorption property of carbon support should be important to the durability of PtNPs/C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]