Dimethyl ether (DME) is a nontoxic gas that is considered a potential fuel for direct-feed proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). DME has several advantages over other fuels, including high energy density, pumpless fuel delivery, liquefied storage, low toxicity and minimal crossover through Nafion membranes in PEMFC. However, the low activity of the state-of-the-art catalyst (Pt(50)Ru(5)0) for DME oxidation is the main hurdle in the development of efficient fuel cell devices. In this work, fine layers of SnO2 on high surface-area carbon (PtxPdy/SnO2/C) catalysts were synthesized by ethylene glycol-assisted reduction and characterized by X-ray diffraction, TEM, EDX, XPS, and ICP-OES. The electro-oxidation of DME was systematically studied in a conventional three-electrode cell and a laboratory prototype direct DME fuel cell (DDMEFC) operating at 70 degrees C. Compared to other catalysts reported for DME oxidation, the Pt0.75Pd0.25/SnO2/C shows higher specific power density in both the conventional three-electrode cell and the fuel cell configurations. The peak power density delivered by direct gas feed DDMEFCs is 110 mW cm(-2) at 0.4 V with only 1.2 mg cm(-2) of platinum group metal (PGM) loading.