In this study, various metal nanoparticles (Ni, Co, Mg, Cu, Ag) were doped on the nanosheet-like MoxCy prepared by using 4-Chloro-o-phenylenediamin (4CloPd) as the carbon source for the production of hydrogen by the decomposition of formic acid. It is found that the doping of metal on MoxCy promoted the catalytic activity greatly. Among them, Ag and Mg doped MoxCy catalysts exhibited much higher catalytic activity than others. Moreover, Mg doped MoC1-x catalyst showed much lower CO production than Ag doped one. The performance of Mg doped MoC1-x catalysts with different Mg loading amounts was investigated. It is found that Mg1.0Mo99.0C1-x had the highest formic acid decomposition performance with a high conversion (above 90% at 200 C), a low CO production (<10% at 200 degrees C) and a long-term stability. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.