Formic acid (FA) is considered to be a potential hydrogen storage material. Homogeneous catalysts are desired, which decompose aqueous FA into H 2 and CO 2 without addition of organic additives as they can contaminate the generated gas mixture. We report a new series of Cp*Ir (Cp* = pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) catalysts featuring picolinamide-based ligands for efficient H 2 generation from FA solution. Among them in-situ generated catalyst from [Cp*Ir(H 2 O) 3 ]SO 4 and picolinohydroxamic acid (L3) achieved a high turnover frequency (TOF) of 90625 h À 1 at 80 °C in 0.9 M FA solution and a turnover number (TON) of 120520 at 80 °C in a recycle experiment. The substituent effect of amide N atom was discussed and a plausible mechanism was proposed based on the experimental results.

This study investigates the information content of Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) reports of listed Chinese companies. We develop a Chinese word dictionary and measure the tones of MD&As. Our results indicate that tone is positively associated with future earnings and is particularly useful when a firm's future prospect is uncertain, accounting information is difficult to understand, or board monitoring is strong. Further analyses show that tone also predicts future cash flow, future sales growth, market reactions, analysts’ revisions, and institutional investors’ shareholdings. Together, we provide robust evidence that in emerging markets such as China, management tone conveys valuable information beyond cheap talk.

We examine the impact of corporate board reforms on the cost of equity (COE) using a sample of data in 41 countries for the period from 1992 to 2012. We find a significant increase in the COE after board reforms worldwide. This effect is eased for firms in countries under a comply‐or‐explain reform approach, as well as for firms in emerging countries. We further conclude that board reforms involving board independence, audit committee and auditor independence, and the separation of the CEO and Chairman positions, result in increases in the COE. Our results suggest that board reforms are considered inefficient to mitigate agency problems.

The new Ir complexes bearing N-(Methylsulfonyl)-2-pyridinecarboxamide (C1) and N-(Phenylsulfonyl)-2-pyridinecarboxamide (C2) were employed as catalysts for aqueous formic acid dehydrogenation (FADH). The ligands were designed to keep the skeleton of picolinamide...