TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preparation (Claimed): The method of making the methanol electro-oxidation catalyst, involves the steps of: adding SBA-15 mesoporous silica to a 0.5M transition metal nitrate solution in ethanol to form an intermediate solution; evaporating the intermediate solution to obtain a dry powder; oxidizing the dry powder to form a composition of an oxide of a transition metal and SBA-15 mesoporous silica; adding a sucrose and sulfuric acid solution to the composition to form a slurry; drying the slurry to form a secondary dry powder; carbonizing the secondary dry powder to form a composition of an oxide of a transition metal and mesoporous carbon; performing NaBH4 reduction on the composition of an oxide of a transition metal and mesoporous carbon; adding platinum and ruthenium precursors to the transition metal oxide/mesoporous carbon composition to form a secondary slurry; and drying the secondary slurry to form the methanol electro-oxidation catalyst. The method further involves the step of stirring the intermediate solution for about 24 hours at room temperature prior to the step of evaporating the intermediate solution. The step of oxidizing the dry powder involves heating the dry powder at about 300 degrees C for about 3 hours under an oxygen atmosphere. The step of drying the slurry to form a secondary dry powder involves the steps of: drying the slurry in an oven at a temperature of about 160 degrees C; and crushing the dried slurry to produce the secondary dried powder. The method further involves the steps of: adding sucrose, water, and sulfuric acid to the secondary dried powder to form tertiary slurry; and drying the tertiary slurry in an oven at a temperature of 160 degrees C; and crushing the dried tertiary slurry. The step of carbonizing the secondary dry powder to form the composition of an oxide of a transition metal and mesoporous carbon involves carbonizing the secondary dried powder at about 900 degrees C. The method further involves the steps of: treating the carbonized secondary dried powder with hydrofluoric acid solution; filtering the treated carbonized secondary dried powder; washing the filtered and treated carbonized secondary dried powder with ethanol; and drying the washed carbonized secondary dried powder. The step of adding the platinum and ruthenium precursors to form the secondary slurry involves adding hydrogen hexachloroplatinate (IV) hexahydrate and ruthenium (III) nitrosyl nitrate solution (Ru(NO)(NO3)x(OH)y) to the transition metal oxide/mesoporous carbon composition. The method further involves the steps of stirring the secondary slurry for about 24 hours at room temperature; filtering the secondary slurry; and washing the secondary slurry with deionized water. The step of drying the secondary slurry involves drying the secondary slurry in a vacuum oven at about 100 degrees C for about 6 hours. Preferred Components: The transition metal is selected from iron, cobalt and nickel. The pores have an average pore diameter of 5.38 nm to 5.50 nm. The 0.5M transition metal nitrate solution is selected from 0.5M iron (III) nitrate enneahydrate solution in ethanol, 0.5M cobalt (II) nitrate hexahydrate solution in ethanol, and 0.5M nickel (II) nitrate hexahydrate solution in ethanol. Preferred Catalyst: The methanol electro-oxidation catalyst has pores formed in it, where the pores have surface areas of 606 m2/g to 661 m2/g.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - METALLURGY - Preferred Components: The platinum-ruthenium alloy nanoparticles each have a crystallite size of 1.4 nm to 1.5 nm. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.