Owing to the formation of an oxametallacyclic conformation the C-C bond cleavage is the preferential channel for the ethanol dissociation on the Rh surface the addition of Rh to Pt can increase the CO(2) yield during the ethanol oxidation However in acidic media the slow oxidation kinetics of CO(ads) to CO(2) limits the overall reaction rate In this work we prepare carbon supported PtRh catalysts and compare their catalytic activities with that of Pt/C in alkaline media Cyclic voltammetry tests demonstrate that the Pt(2)Rh/C catalyst exhibits a higher activity for the ethanol oxidation than Pt/C does Linear sweep voltammetry tests show that the peak current density on Pt(2)Rh/C is about 2 4 times of that on Pt/C The enhanced electro activity can be ascribed not only to the improved C-C bond cleavage in the presence of Rh but also to the accelerated oxidation kinetics of CO(ads) to CO(2) in alkaline media (C) 2010 Professor T Nejat Veziroglu Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved