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Carbon-supported platinum-nickel alloy catalysts have become one of the main choices of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) due to the high catalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this work, carbon aerogel supported platinum-nickel solid solution alloy catalysts (Pt3Ni/CA) with small particles (~ 3.5 nm) and uniform distribution were prepared via a simple one-step rapid reduction method during which no structure guide or stabilizer is added. In rotating disk electrode (RDE), the mass activity (MA, 0.25 A mgPt−1) and specific activity (SA, 4.69 A m−2) of the optimized Pt3Ni/CA catalysts for ORR are nearly 3.8 times and 6.5 times that of the state-of-the-art commercial carbon-supported platinum catalysts (Pt/C, 0.07 A mgPt−1 and 0.72 A m−2), respectively. After the accelerated durability test (ADT), the as-prepared Pt3Ni/CA catalysts still keep a satisfactory MA and SA which are more than 3.4 and 8.9 times as high as that of Pt/C. The Koutecký-Levich (K-L) equation shows that the electrochemical reaction conforms to be a 4e− process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]