We report a photocatalytic methanol fuel cell (PMFC) based on one-dimension TiO2, ZnO and alpha-Fe2O3 photoanode for efficient methanol oxidation reaction at room temperature. Electro-chemical analysis along with Mott-Schottky (MS) equation and cyclic voltammetry (CV) revealed thermodynamic feasibility of charge transfer and methanol oxidation in the system. Time-resolved surface photovoltage (SPV) transient gave a dynamic information of photogenerated charge carriers, which is related to types of materials, sample thickness and light intensity. The ZnO-based PMFC got the maximum short-circuit current of 1.82 mA cm(-2) and TiO2-based fuel cell had an open-circuit voltage of 1.34 V. This study opens an available field to develop power cells taking advantage of both chemical energy and solar energy. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.