Novel carbon materials with nanometer dimensions are of potentially significant importance for a number of advanced technological applications. Within this report we describe the results for the electrochemical characterization of a series of single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) metal supported catalysts as cathodes for basic fuel cell systems. Compared to the typical carbon black electrocatalysts, the nanotube supported platinum catalyst resulted in up to a 140% improvement in the efficiency for a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell.