Mesoporous carbon nitride (MCN) has been prepared through a simple polymerization reaction between ethylenediamine (EDA) and carbon tetrachloride (CTC) by a nano hard-templating approach. The obtained MCN possesses high surface area (166.3 m(2)/g), average pore size of 9.2 nm and high N content (up to 18.5 wt%). The negative charge and the basicity on MCN surface are originated from its rich carbon nitride heterocycles, which notably improves the surface hydrophilicity and the adsorption of acidic molecules. Furthermore, MCN can be adopted as the proper support for highly dispersed Pd NPs with well-controlled size distribution. Compared with microporous N-doped active carbon with low N-content, the MCN-supported Pd catalyst shows an enhanced activity in water phase for the selective ring hydrogenation of benzoic acid, benzamide and phenol, in which 11.3 times higher activity in comparison to undoped catalyst is achieved. Wide characterizations reveal that big pore size, selective adsorption for acid substrate and strong interaction between N and Pd may lead to the high activity of Pd/MCN. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.