Nitrogen functionalized carbon has received widely research interest because of their remarkable performance. In this paper, 1H-benzotriazole functionalized carbon (BTA-C) is fabricated and used as support to immobilize Pd nanoparticles. The physical characterization results demonstrate that the Pd nanoparticles uniformly disperse on the BTA-C. Because of the good effect of BTA functionalization, the as-prepared Pd/BTA-C catalyst has larger electrochemically active surface area contrasted to Pd/C. Meanwhile, the electrochemical test results indicate that the Pd/BTA-C possesses higher activity (more than 1.8 times), lower onset potential (negative 90 mV) and better stability than that of Pd/C counterpart in ethanol oxidation reaction. All results imply that the Pd/BTA-C is a promising candidate electrocatalyst in direct ethanol fuel cells. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.