The development of a facile yet efficient strategy to boost the catalytic performance of supported Pd nanoparticles (NPs) toward the dehydrogenation of formic acid (FA) is essential but remains challenging. Here, a novel hybrid nanocatalyst comprising Pd and Ni(OH)(2) supported on porous carbon (PC) is developed. The obtained Pd-Ni(OH)(2)/PC nanocatalyst exhibits an excellent catalytic performance for FA dehydrogenation to produce hydrogen. The introduction of Ni(OH)(2) in PC support can significantly promote the catalytic activity of Pd NPs toward FA dehydrogenation. Additionally, the catalytic property of Pd-Ni(OH)(2) /PC is correlated with the Pd/Ni ratio. The Pd-2-Ni-1(OH)(2)/PC with the optimum Pd/Ni ratio of 2/1 exhibits the maximum turnover frequency (TOF) of 3409 h(-1) at 60 degrees C for FA dehydrogenation. The highly dispersed ultrafine Pd-Ni(OH)(2) hybrid NPs with numerous accessible active sites and Ni(OH)(2)-induced positive synergetic effects with Pd NPs considerably boost the catalytic performance for FA dehydrogenation. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.