A trio of scientists have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a few revolutionary form of molecular architecture.
The Nobel Committee likened the structures which pack a vast amount of internal space into tiny materials—to Hermione Granger’s magically enlarged handbag from the Harry Potter novels.
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi will share the prize for their groundbreaking discoveries.
Their work, announced Wednesday in Stockholm, Sweden, has led to completely new materials with the potential to tackle some of the planet’s most pressing problems, including climate change.
Heiner Linke, chair of the chemistry committee, explained the significance of MOFs, stating that the laureates’ materials can “store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume.” He compared them to a hotel, where huge groups of molecules can act as ‘guests,’ entering and exiting the material’s cavities.
The committee specifically praised MOFs for their versatility, noting they “can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions.”
Richard Robson (University of Melbourne, Australia) began the work in the 1970s. He theorized that linking different types of molecules rather than just individual atoms could create new types of materials. By the 1980s, Robson showed his materials self-assembled into a regular, crystalline structure, like a diamond, but with huge internal cavities instead of a compact structure.
Susumu Kitagawa (Kyoto University, Japan) built on Robson’s foundation. Driven by a desire to find “the usefulness of useless” materials, he began researching porous molecular structures and presented his first one in 1992. His major breakthrough came in 1997 with a new molecule that could specifically absorb and release gases like methane, nitrogen, and oxygen.
Omar Yaghi (University of California, Berkeley), who moved to the U.S. from Jordan, utilized their research to develop a completely new framework, MOF-5, which the committee described as a “classic” in the field. This structure is remarkably stable, able to be heated to 570∘F (300∘C) without collapsing.
Professor Kim Jelfs noted that the sheer internal surface area of MOFs is astonishing: “One gram of a MOF material can have the same surface area inside its pores as a football pitch.”
The research by the laureates has a vast array of real-world uses like MOFs can combat climate change by capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and also Yaghi’s group successfully used their MOF material to suck water from the desert air in Arizona. The material captures water vapor overnight and releases it when heated by the sun.
Environmental Cleanup: Other potential applications include removing “forever chemicals” from water and breaking down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1 million).
