This paper will provide a review of the recent work done by our group on the synthetic routes to prepare metal carbide and nitride materials, which are proposed as alternative to actual materials used as supports and catalysts in fuel cells. With this end, the proper physicochemical and spectroelectrochemical characterization of these materials is reported. Additionally, the electrochemical behavior in absence and presence of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methanol and ethanol in acidic media up to 70 degrees C is scrutinized. Experiments realized on Mo2C are described along the manuscript to exemplify the main achievements. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.