Pt-Ru catalysts have been made by a thermal decomposition and electrodeposition method onto a titanium mesh for the electrooxidation of methanol. Galvanostatic polarisations were used to assess and compare the relative activities of the electrodes. SEM and XRD are employed to study the morphology and structure of the catalyst layers. The performance of the anodes in fuel cell assemblies is also discussed. We can see that the mesh perform well in half and full cell tests despite significant apparent physical differences, which are yet to be explored. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.