NewsChemistry Nobel Prize awarded to trio in field of metal-organic frameworksSusumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M Yaghi’s work can be used to harvest water from desert air.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi for their advancements in metal-organic frameworks (MOF).

These scientists, representing Kyoto University in Japan, the University of Melbourne in Australia, and the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, respectively, made significant contributions to the field by developing molecular constructions with large spaces that allow the flow of gases and other chemicals. These constructions have potential applications in water harvesting from desert air, carbon dioxide capture, toxic gas storage, and the breakdown of pharmaceutical traces in the environment.

Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, emphasized the enormous potential of metal-organic frameworks, which offer new opportunities for custom-made materials with unique functions. Olof Ramström, a committee member, likened the molecular architecture to a handbag that is small on the outside but large on the inside.

The awarded chemists developed stable metal-organic frameworks, comparable to the framework of a house, capable of absorbing and containing gases. These frameworks are utilized in various practical applications, such as atmospheric carbon dioxide capture and water extraction from dry air.

The initial step in this decades-long journey began in 1989 when Richard Robson experimented with positively charged copper ions and a four-armed molecule. This combination formed a diamond-shaped structure with cavities, although initially unstable. Between 1992 and 2003, Kitagawa and Yaghi made pivotal discoveries that stabilized the metal frameworks. Kitagawa demonstrated flexibility in the structures, while Yaghi introduced modifications through rational design.

In 2024, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to David Baker from the University of Washington, along with Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind, for developing techniques to decode and design novel proteins using advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence.

The first Nobel of 2025 was announced on Monday, awarding the prize in medicine to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi for their work on peripheral immune tolerance. The physics prize on Tuesday went to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their research on quantum tunneling and its impact on digital communications and computing.

The Nobel announcements will continue with the literature prize on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, and the economics prize next Monday. The award ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 10, commemorating the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. Nobel was a Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite, who passed away in 1896.

Based on reporting by Al Jazeera.