The reactivity of commercial ceria powder and as-synthesized one dimensional (1-D) ceria-nanorod (CeNR) for methanol oxidation has been studied at an atmospheric pressure in the present study. Experimentally, ceria nanomaterials are consisted with fluorite structure and confirmed using XRD patterns. The surface areas of BET N-2 adsorption isotherms for commercial ceria powder and 1-D CeNR samples are 6 and 78 m(2) g(-1), respectively. The EXAFS spectra reveal that the 1-D CeNR species has a Ce-O bonding with a bond distance of 2.4 angstrom and a coordination number is 6.87. Higher oxygen vacancies and Ce3+ are formed for CeNR as compared with the ceria powder and confirmed with both XPS and Raman spectroscopies. Moreover, two major species as named formate and methoxy are contributing on ceria for methanol dissociation, whereas, formation of carbon dioxide is evident effectively for 1-D CeNR. The reactivity for methanol oxidation of the commercial ceria powder and 1-D CeNR has been also compared. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.