Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is a promising power source technology, but it has been unable to be successfully commercialized due to its high cost and low kinetic oxidation. Both problems stem from one of its main components, the catalyst. Therefore, this study is focused on determining and optimizing the electrocatalyst parameters of a hig-hperformance DMFC. The electrocatalyst, PtRu/TiO2-CNF, is produced by the deposition method and is subjected to electrochemical measurement and cyclic voltammetry (CV) to measure half-cell performance in a DMFC. The optimization process involved two main phases, a screening process followed by response surface methodology (RSM). The resulting optimum parameters were then used for the single cell performance testing. The results show that the mathematical model suggested by RSM is adequate for the optimization of the parameter levels. The optimum parameters suggested by RSM are a PtRu composition of 30.25% and a catalyst loading of 0.59 mg/cm(2), resulting in almost perfect agreement between the measured current density (603.06 mA/mg(ptRu)) and the predicted value (600.63 mA/mg(ptRu)). The current density obtained in this study is the highest among other researchers in the same field. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.