Nitrogen-doped acetylene carbon black (N-C) is prepared by annealing acetylene carbon black and melamine under the protection of N-2 at different temperatures. The resultant N-C materials are used as the support of Pd catalyst (Pd/N-C) for formic acid electrooxidation (FAEO). The catalytic activity of the Pd/N-C catalyst towards FAEO is evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, COad stripping voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The results show that when the heat-treatment temperature of support is 900 degrees C, the corresponding catalyst, Pd/N-C-900, generate 2.84-fold and 0.96-fold higher activity than homemade and commercial Pd/C catalysts in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 0.5 M HCOOH solution. The COad stripping voltammetry results demonstrate that Pd/N-C-900 has much better resistance to CO poisoning. Moreover, the effect of formic acid concentration and the temperature on the Pd/N-C catalysts are also explored, which confirms the really enhanced performances for FAEO. It is founded that the doping of nitrogen results an increase in the performance for FAEO due to the improved Pd nanoparticles (Pd NPs) dispersion and the modified electronic effect. The results indicate that the Pd/N-C catalyst has great application prospect as a high-performance anode catalyst for direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs). (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.