Direct methanol fuel cell（DMFC） will be widely used in the future due to its high energy conversion efficiency

clean and environmental protection

small size

light weight

low temperature and fast start-up. The working principle of DMFC and the related research progress of its core components were introduced

including anode catalyst

cathode catalyst and membrane electrode technology. The working principle of electrode catalysts was described. According to the different active metal components

the electrode catalysts were classified and summarized. Among the anode noble metal based catalysts

the alloy catalysts of Pt with Ru

Co

Fe and Ni show better performance than pure Pt. Pt-Fe system is the best one among the cathode noble metal based catalysts. The results show that the noble metal based alloy nanostructures are uniformly dispersed on the support

resulting in higher electrochemically active surface area and lower charge transfer resistance

and the stability and catalytic activity of the catalyst are greatly improved. Non noble metal based catalysts are represented by oxides and transition metals instead of Pt

showing good performance

but there is still the problem of insufficient catalytic efficiency. The membrane electrode process is relatively mature

and the activation process and proton exchange membrane need to be further studied.