Currently

one of the critical issues in the world is finding an appropriate green alternative to fossil fuels due to the concerns about global warming. As a hydrogen source

formic acid has been given particular attention owing to the attractive features such as high-energy density

no toxicity

high stability at ambient temperature and high hydrogen content. Introducing an affordable and highly efficient catalyst with easy recovery from the reaction mixture for selective dehydrogenation of formic acid is still demanding. In this report

we used a simple one-step process to synthesize Ni@Pd core shell nanoparticles on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane modified Fe

3

O

4

nanoparticles. The existence of Ni and Pd results in a synergic effect on the catalytic activity. The -NH

2

groups play an important role for obtaining well-dispersed ultrafine particles with high surface area and active sites. In addition

Fe

3

O

4

lead to convenient magnetic recovery of the catalyst from reaction mixture. Our results indicate that the as-prepared catalyst give the superb turnover frequency of 5367.8 h

-1

with no additive

which is higher than most of the previously reported catalysts.