As eries of zinc-based catalysts wase valuated for their efficiency in decomposing formic acid into molecular hydrogen and carbon dioxide in the gas phase using quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry experiments.T he effectiveness of the catalysts in the series [(L)Zn(H)] + ,w here L = 2,2':6',2''-terpyridine (tpy), 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) or 2,2'-bipyrydine( bpy), wasf ound to dependo nt he ligand used, whicht urned out to be fundamental in tuning the catalytic properties of the zinc complex. Specifically, [(tpy)Zn(H)] + displayed the fastest reaction with formic acid proceedingb yd ehydrogenation to produce the zinc formate complex [(tpy)Zn(O 2 CH)] + and H 2 .T he catalysts [(L)Zn(H)] + are reformed by decarboxylating the zinc formate complexes [(L)Zn(O 2 CH)] + by collision-induced dissociation, which is the only reactionc hannel for each of the ligands used. The decarboxylation reactionw as found to be reversible, since the zinc hydride complexes [(L)Zn(H)] + react with carbon dioxide yielding the zinc formate complex. This reactionw as again substantially faster for L = tpy than L = phen or bpy.T he energetics and mechanisms of these processes were modelled using severall evelso fd ensity functional theory (DFT) calculations. Experimental results are fully supported by the computational predictions.