The development of highly effective and robust electrocatalysts is an imperative requirement for the commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells. In this work, three dimensional, porous and urchin-like titanium copper nitride architectures is explored and implemented as the Pt support. The methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) performance of the obtained electrocatalyst shows a specific and mass activity of 1.46 mAcm(-2) and 0.84 Amg(Pt)(-1), respectively, which are both more than 3 times higher compared with the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Notably, the novel catalyst also exhibits high stability, and a much slower performance decay compared with the benchmarked Pt/C with the same durability testing procedures. The comprehensive data confirms that the new type catalyst possesses a high charge transfer during the MOR process, and the synergistic effects between anchored Pt and the support mainly contributes to the high stability. This work provides a strategic method for designing effective MOR electrocatalyst with desirable stability. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.