Development of highly active and durable Pt based anode materials with higher utilization of Pt is quite crucial towards the commercial viability of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Herein, multi-walled carbon nanotube supported PtxIr nanostructures (PtxIr/MWCNT) are successfully prepared by one-pot wet chemical reduction without any surfactants. The role of Ir content and its bi-functional mechanism on kinetics of methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) was studied. The MOR on PtxIr/MWCNT follows Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism by successive oxidative removal of CO. The co-existence of IrO2 plays a vital role as catalytic promotor. Amongst, Pt2Ir/MWCNT shows enhanced electrocatalytic activity (mass activity (MA), 933.3 mA/mg(pt)) and durability (13.8% loss of MA after 5000 potential cycles) thru the well-balanced electronic and bi-functional effects. This study implies that the optimized composition of Pt2Ir/MWCNT exhibits efficient methanol oxidation and could be a potential catalyst for direct methanol fuel cells. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.