Palladium oxide (PdO) supported carbon nanomaterials were designed and tested for Heck olefination of aryl halides. Various carbonaceous materials, such as single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT), multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), carbon nanofiber (CNF), graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) were screened as support for PdO nanoparticles. The structural and phase formation of PdO on carbon materials was confirmed by X-ray diffraction, whereas, surface area and porous nature of the carbon materials was confirmed by N2 adsorption studies. The morphology of the materials was studied by electron microscopy. Among these catalysts, PdO/GO catalyst showed the best catalytic activity (turnover number 410 and frequency 205 h-1) for the Heck olefination and the catalyst was reused successfully up to 3 cycles, which confirms the true heterogeneous nature. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim