The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 has been awarded for the development of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) to Susumu Kitagawa, PhD, professor at Kyoto University, Japan, Richard Robson, PhD, professor at University of Melbourne, Australia, and Omar M. Yaghi, PhD, professor at University of California, Berkeley.

When Hans Ellegren, PhD, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and professor of evolutionary biology and genetics at Uppsala University, opened the Nobel announcement ceremony in Stockholm, he noted that the prize was about “creating new rooms for chemistry” and imagining how the tools of chemistry can be used to create entirely new materials.

When metal ions are used as nodes and linked together with organic compounds, they arrange themselves into an ordered framework which may seem “quite straightforward,” he said. But building MOFs was a difficult challenge for many years; creating them was an elusive process. But now, due to the work honored by the prize this year, MOFs can be created with “unlimited variations.”

Olof Ramstroem, PhD, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry and professor in the department of chemistry, Center for Pathogen Research & Training at UMass Lowell, added during the announcement ceremony that this year’s prize was a story “full of holes that has enormous capacity to hold your attention.”

Indeed, metal-organic frameworks contain large cavities in which molecules can flow in and out. Researchers have successfully used them to harvest water from desert air, extract pollutants from water, capture carbon dioxide, and store hydrogen with many more capabilities to come in the future.

Hermione’s handbag

Robson was the first to build a framework in 1989, using rational design. He was inspired by the structure of diamond in which every atom is linked to four others in a pyramid-like shape. He combined positively charged copper ions with a four-armed molecule in which each arm contained a nitrile that was attracted to the copper. When combined, they bonded to form a well-ordered, spacious crystal. The framework, like a diamond filled with innumerable cavities, was unstable and collapsed easily.

Years later, Kitagawa pursued the possibility of gas adsorption in these materials. He made a stable framework that was intersected by open channels that could be filled with different types of gas. Not only was the MOF able to adsorb methane, oxygen, and nitrogen, but the gases could flow in and out of the construction. In addition, Kitagawa showed that the frameworks could be flexible and change shape, whether gas is present or not.

Around the same time, Yaghi was working to make MOFs more stable. In 1999, he constructed a very stable material, MOF-5, which has cubic spaces. He showed that it can be modified using rational design, giving it new and desirable properties. This was “an astonishing framework” noted Ramstroem; it was stable up to 300 degrees Celsius and had remarkable surface area. Just a few grams of this porous materials contains as much surface area as a large football pitch.

It is like “Hermione’s handbag” in Harry Potter, noted Ramstroem—small in size but very suitable to absorb large amounts of material.

Yaghi then made an important conceptual contribution—a MOF can change properties by changing the length of the organic linker. He continues to show that it is possible to build large families of MOFs, including 16 variants of MOF-5 with cavities of various sizes.

Following the laureates’ discoveries, chemists have built tens of thousands of different MOFs and the field remains a very rich, very active area of research. “New MOFs are developed every day,” Ramstroem noted.

Not surprisingly, industry has become very interested in these materials. Many have been applied and there will certainly be many new applications in the future. Some of these may contribute to solving some of the 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, storing hydrogen gas, capturing rare earth metals from waste, removing and breaking down oil contamination, and more. There is also a lot of active work in the biological industry, for imaging or diagnosis.

When Kitagawa answered reporters’ questions on the phone during the morning call (though it was evening in Japan) he noted that he was “deeply honored that my long-standing research has been recognized,” and that he “really enjoys the chemistry of the materials.” He added that his future goal is to move the work into the air because air contains most of the elements for important materials. So, he says, MOFs could capture air and separate it into useable carbon dioxide and oxygen.