We report a facile light-induced synthesis approach for preparing clean-surface PdPt@Pt core–shell nanoparticles. Without using any structure-directing agents, the PdPt@Pt nanoparticles exhibit a clean surface, high porosity and significantly improved electrocatalytic activity for the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) compared to commercial platinum black, Pt/C and other Pd@Pt materials reported previously.