Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 Awarded for Breakthroughs in Metal-Organic Frameworks
The royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, recognizing Susumu Kitagawa, richard Robson, and Omar M Yaghi for their pioneering work in the growth of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The award, presented on Wednesday, celebrates their contributions to creating materials with remarkable potential for addressing global challenges.
MOFs are described as “molecular constructions with large spaces” capable of selectively capturing and storing gases and chemicals. This unique property opens doors to a wide range of applications,including harvesting water from arid environments,capturing carbon dioxide emissions,safely storing hazardous gases,and even removing pharmaceutical contaminants from water sources.
Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, highlighted the transformative potential of MOFs, stating they offer “previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions.” Committee member Olof Ramström drew a compelling analogy, comparing the internal volume of these structures to the seemingly bottomless handbag of Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.
The scientists’ work, though conducted independently, built upon each other’s discoveries. Robson’s initial 1989 experiment involved combining copper ions with a multi-armed molecule, resulting in a diamond-shaped structure with internal cavities. However, this early framework proved unstable. Kitagawa and yaghi subsequently tackled this challenge, with Kitagawa demonstrating the possibility of creating flexible mofs and Yaghi pioneering a method for their rational design and stabilization between 1992 and 2003.
These MOFs can be visualized as the structural framework of a house, capable of absorbing and containing gases for various practical applications.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for their advancements in protein design using AI. Earlier this week, the Nobel prize in Medicine went to Mary E. Brunkow,Fred Ramsdell,and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on immune tolerance, and the Physics prize was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. devoret, and John M. Martinis for their research on quantum tunneling.
The Nobel announcements will continue with the Literature prize on Thursday,the Peace Prize on Friday,and the Economics prize next Monday. The formal award ceremony will take place on December 10th, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, established the prizes through his will in 1896.
