A trio of chemists based in Japan, Australia and the United States have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for ¡°the development of metal-organic frameworks¡±, or MOFs, which can be used to harvest, capture and store substances including water and carbon dioxide.

The Japanese chemist Susumu Kitagawa, of Kyoto University, the British University of Melbourne chemist Richard Robson and the Jordanian-American chemist Omar Yaghi, of the University of California, Berkeley, ¡°developed a new form of molecular architecture¡±, .

¡°There is nothing like this, it¡¯s an astonishment,¡± after receiving the news, adding, ¡°[It¡¯s] a feeling you don¡¯t have often.¡±

Describing the extensive applications of MOFs, he explained, ¡°You have thousands of inorganic building blocks that could be used and millions of organic units that could be used, and the combination would produce an infinite, truly infinite variety of structures that can not only be imagined, but can actually be made in the lab.¡±

̽»¨ÊÓƵ

Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry,?said: ¡°Metal-organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions.¡±

Kitagawa, Yaghi and Robson will share the award of SKr11 million (?870,000).

̽»¨ÊÓƵ

The work on MOFs began with Robson, said the Nobel committee, who presented a new molecular construction in 1989 but found it to be unstable.

In the 1990s, Kitagawa demonstrated ¡°that gases can flow in and out of the constructions¡±, further predicting the flexibility of metal-organic frameworks, while Yaghi ¡°created a very stable MOF¡± and demonstrated, in the early 2000s, the ability to modify it to give it ¡°new and desirable properties¡±.

The chemists¡¯ groundbreaking work has paved the way for the potential resolution of ¡°some of humankind¡¯s greatest challenges¡±, the committee said, with MOFs able to extract water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide and store toxic substances among other applications.

The Royal Society, of which both Kitagawa and Robson are fellows, , with vice-president Sheila Rowan saying in a statement: ¡°Their research into the fundamental science of metal-organic frameworks is allowing scientists everywhere to tackle some of the world¡¯s toughest challenges, from harvesting clean water, to capturing carbon dioxide and catalysing low energy chemical reactions.¡±

̽»¨ÊÓƵ

¡°Together, they have helped lay the foundations of and set the direction for one of the fastest-growing areas of fundamental research in modern chemistry,¡± Rowan said.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com