The present work revealed the catalytic reduction of nitric oxide (NO) by synergistic effect of anhydride group and carbon metal species for the first time. The doping of metal on graphene oxide produced 0.50 mmol/g of carbon metal species, and increased the amount of anhydride groups from 0.49 to 5.52 mmol/g. The obtained catalyst removed 30% of NO (990 ppm) at 300 degrees C. However, at the same catalytic conditions, the catalyst showed no activity toward NO reduction if anhydride groups were removed. Similarly, although graphene oxide had anhydride groups, it still exhibited no activity without the help of carbon metal species. Furthermore, the results of temperature-programmed decomposition indicated that the amounts of anhydride and carbon-metal species were closely related to the total removal amount of NO. At last, transient kinetic and thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry revealed that anhydride group and carbon metal bonding formed active sites. Then the resulted species reduced NO by a catalytic process with the regeneration of active sites and consumption of carbon. These results explained the reason why modification of surface chemistry enhanced the catalytic activity of carbon metal catalyst.