Three different techniques, a hydrothermal process with impregnation, solution-combustion and common precipitation with impregnation, were employed for the synthesis of 1.5 wt% Pd/CeO2, and the resulting catalysts were denoted as Pd/HY, Pd/COM and Pd/PI, respectively. These catalysts have been investigated in terms of catalytic co-oxidation of CO and methanol and characterized by means of XRD, BET, SEM, STEM-EDS, CO chemisorption, XPS, Raman, O-2-TPD, H-2-TPR and CO-TPD measurements. Activity results show that a rapid catalytic oxidation of CO following the Mars-van Krevelen-type mechanism favors the complete methanol oxidation at low temperature. Consequently, the Pd/HY catalyst with the highest degree of defect sites connected with the mobility of activated oxygen shows the best catalytic performance. And the generation of more defect sites demonstrated by Raman is assumed for the low crystallinity and small crystallite size of CeO2 synthesized through a hydrothermal process while the high mobility of activated oxygen is evidenced by O-2-TPD and H-2-TPR. Additionally, the outstanding catalytic performance of Pd/HY is also associated with its high Pd dispersion and stable PdOx species as well as good redox behavior. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.