Correction to: Nature Catalysis https://www.nature.com/articles/s41929-018-0062-0, published online 30 April 2018.

In the version of this Article originally published, formaldehyde (CH2O) was not identified alongside the main product, formic acid. Formaldehyde previously was not observed due to H2O resonance in the 1H NMR spectrum. The presence of CH2O has now been confirmed by 1H NMR and 13C NMR in d6-DMSO. These results are shown in Supplementary Fig. 5; in which panels b and c have been added to show the presence of CH2O.

The KIE studies were then conducted with the addition of CH2O, in the form of paraformaldehyde. This addition has no influence on the previous conclusion that decarboxylation is involved in the RDS. In Table 3, the ‘Reaction solution’ column now lists CH2O as an additional additive in each reaction solution. Footnote a now also includes “paraformaldehyde, 6.6 mg, 0.21 mmol, dissolved in the reaction mixture”.

An additional experiment in the presence of CH2O (paraformaldehyde was added and dissolved in the reaction mixture) was conducted to investigate the effect of each component in the reaction mixture after the hydrolysis-oxidation step on the production of H2, and added as new entry 9 in Supplementary Table 6. Notably, no significant influence on the catalyst performance was observed in the presence of CH2O (4 mol%). In Fig. 4, “CH2O” has been added after “HOAc” in the list of chemicals shown in green.

In the sentence “First, the analysis of the liquid phase...”, “CH2O (4 mol%, exists as methanediol)” has been added to the list of chemicals in the liquid phase. In the sentence “No significant influence on the catalyst ...”, “CH2O” has been added to the list of chemicals present, and “entries 6–8” has been changed to “6–9”. Furthermore, “Supplementary Table 6, entries 9 and 10” has been replaced with “Supplementary Table 6, entries 10 and 11”.