3 scientists win 2025 Chemistry Nobel for developing metal-organic frameworks

New Delhi: Three scientists from the US, Japan, and Australia on Wednesday have been conferred with the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the metal-organic frameworks.

The laureates Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi created molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow.

These constructions, metal-organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, or catalyse chemical reactions.

“The 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi ‘for the development of metal-organic frameworks’,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The laureates have developed a new form of molecular architecture. In their constructions, metal ions function as cornerstones that are linked by long organic (carbon-based) molecules. Together, the metal ions and molecules are organised to form crystals that contain large cavities. These porous materials are called metal-organic frameworks (MOF).

By varying the building blocks used in the MOFs, chemists can design them to capture and store specific substances. MOFs can also drive chemical reactions or conduct electricity.

“Metal-organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions,” said Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Following the laureates’ groundbreaking discoveries, chemists have built tens of thousands of different MOFs.

Some of these may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges, with applications that include separating PFAS from water, breaking down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment, capturing carbon dioxide, or harvesting water from desert air.

Kyoto University Professor Kitagawa was born in 1951 in Kyoto, Japan. He undertook his doctorate from the varsity in 1979.

Born in 1937 in Glusburn, UK, Robson got his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1962. He is currently working as a Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Yaghi was born in 1965 in Amman, Jordan. He got his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, US, in 1990. He is currently a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, US. The prize money of 11 million Swedish kronor will be shared equally between the laureates.

IANS