Well-dispersed palladium nanoparticles (NPs) anchored on a porous N-doped carbon is prepared by wet chemical method, using metal organic frameworks (ZIF-8) as a precursor to derive the porous N-doped carbon support. Benefitting from the N-doping and the porous structure of the carbon materials, the final Pd NPs are in high dispersion and exhibit reduced particle sizes, with electronic structure and chemical status tuned to favor the formic acid decomposition (FAD). The prepared Pd/Czir-8-950 catalysts show enhanced catalytic performance and selectivity for FAD, the turnover of frequency (TOF) and the mass activity up to 1166 h(-1) and 11.01 mol H(2)g(-1) pd(h-1) were obtained at 30 degrees C. This work provides an effective and easy way for synthesis the Pd-based catalyst, which has enormous application prospects for the next generation hydrogen energy preparation and storage. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.