Susumu, Richard, and Omar Win 2025 Nobel in Chemistry for Metal-Organic Frameworks

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks.”

The laureates developed metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with large cavities that allow molecules to flow in and out. These structures are used to harvest water, remove pollutants, capture carbon dioxide, and store hydrogen.

The breakthrough started in 1989 when Richard Robson combined copper ions with a four-armed molecule, forming a crystal filled with cavities. However, his initial structures were unstable and collapsed easily.

Between 1992 and 2003, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi strengthened the method. Kitagawa showed that gases can flow in and out of MOFs and predicted that they could be made flexible.

Yaghi developed a stable MOF and demonstrated that it could be rationally modified to gain new properties. Their discoveries laid the foundation for further MOF research.

Since their discoveries, chemists have created tens of thousands of MOFs with applications like removing PFAS from water, breaking down pharmaceuticals, capturing carbon dioxide, and harvesting water from deserts.