TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preparation (Claimed): Preparing the methanol electro-oxidation catalyst comprises (a) adding Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 (SBA-15) mesoporous silica to a 0.5M of rare earth metal nitrate solution in ethanol to form an intermediate solution, (b) evaporating the intermediate solution to obtain a dry powder, (c) oxidizing the dry powder to form a composition of an oxide of the rare earth metal and SBA-15 mesoporous silica, (d) adding a sucrose and sulfuric acid solution to the composition to form a slurry, (e) drying the slurry to form a secondary dry powder, (f) carbonizing the secondary dry powder to form the composition of the oxide of the rare earth metal and mesoporous carbon, (g) performing sodium borohydride reduction on the composition of the oxide of rare earth metal and mesoporous carbon, (h) adding a platinum precursor to form a secondary slurry and (i) drying the secondary slurry to form the methanol electrooxidation catalyst. Preferred Method: The method further comprises: stirring the intermediate solution for 24 hours at room temperature prior to the evaporation of it; adding sucrose (0.83 g), water (5 g) and sulfuric acid (0.093 g) to the secondary dried powder to form a tertiary slurry and drying the tertiary slurry in an oven at a temperature of 160 degrees C and crushing the tertiary dried slurry; 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; and stirring the secondary slurry for 24 hours at room temperature, filtering the secondary slurry and washing the secondary slurry with deionized water. The step (a) comprises adding the SBA-15 mesoporous silica to a solution comprising cerium (III) nitrate hexahydrate solution (0.5 M) in ethanol, praseodymium (III) nitrate n-hydrate solution (0.5 M) in ethanol, neodymium (III) nitrate hexahydrate solution (0.5 M) in ethanol and samarium (III) nitrate hexahydrate solution (0.5 M) in ethanol. The step (c) comprises heating the dry powder at 300 degrees C for 3 hours under an oxygen atmosphere. The step (d) comprises adding sucrose (1.25 g), water (5 g) and sulfuric acid (0.14 g ) in (1 g) of the composition. The step (e) comprises drying the slurry in an oven at a temperature of 160 degrees C and crushing the dried slurry to produce the secondary dried powder. The step (f) comprises carbonizing at temperature of 900 degrees C. The step (h) comprises adding hydrogen hexachloroplatinate (IV) hexahydrate. The step (i) comprises drying the secondary slurry in a vacuum oven at 100 degrees C for 6 hours. Preferred Components: The rare earth metal is cerium, praseodymium, neodymium or samarium. The pores formed in the methanol electro-oxidation catalyst have: surface areas of 684-778 m2/g; and an average pore diameter of 3.8-4 nm. A total pore volume of the methanol electro-oxidation catalyst is 0.65-0.75 cm3/g. The platinum nano-particles each have a crystallite size of 1.3-1.4 nm. A lattice parameter of the methanol electro-oxidation catalyst is 3.8662-3.8911 Angstrom . The methanol electro-oxidation catalyst has a mass activity of 9.21-10.56 mA/mg. EXAMPLE - None given.