Nobel prize awarded for developing metal-organic frameworks
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three researchers for their pioneering work on metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, structured polymers with precise geometries. Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa, and Omar Yaghi share the honor for creating materials that enable gas storage, filtration, and catalysis. Their innovations, starting around 1990, have opened new possibilities in chemistry and environmental applications.
Polymers typically form as disordered tangles of molecular chains, limiting their chemical versatility. Around 1990, chemists began crafting ordered structures known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), where metals act as hubs linking rigid organic molecules at precise angles. This design creates open pores for selective molecule passage and catalytic sites, distinguishing MOFs from traditional plastics used in items like bags or tires.
Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne built the first MOF using copper and a benzene-ring-containing organic molecule, forming a pyramid-like stack. Despite expectations of instability, this structure allowed solvent movement through internal cavities. Robson predicted MOFs could retain shape after solvent removal, host catalytic sites, and filter molecules—properties later realized.
Susumu Kitagawa at Kyoto University expanded on this by creating a MOF with channels spanning its length, formed in water and stable when dried. It retained gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, and methane. Kitagawa foresaw MOFs adapting to stimuli like temperature or light, a concept now demonstrated.
Omar Yaghi, a Palestinian refugee who rose to a top position at the University of California, Berkeley, has synthesized numerous MOF variants. These include structures stable at hundreds of degrees Celsius, with 60 percent open space or tunable pore sizes. Notable examples absorb carbon dioxide selectively to address greenhouse emissions and capture desert air moisture overnight for daytime release via solar heat.
Today, thousands of MOFs exist, as evidenced by their Wikipedia page exceeding 20,000 words. Applications range from hydrogen storage and CO2 filtration to reaction catalysis, often operating unobtrusively in practical technologies. The Nobel recognizes this foundational work, announced on October 8, 2025.