by Umaima Reshi
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry honours Robson, Kitagawa, and Yaghi for creating metal–organic frameworks — porous molecular structures that can trap gases, purify water, and capture carbon, revolutionising material science.
When scientists talk about creating “rooms” for molecules, it sounds like science fiction. But that is precisely what the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry celebrates. Three chemists, Susumu Kitagawa of Japan, Richard Robson of Australia, and Omar Yaghi of the United States, have developed molecular frameworks so spacious that gases and liquids can flow through them like guests moving through the rooms of a building.
Their creation, called metal–organic frameworks, or MOFs, represents a completely new kind of molecular architecture. By combining metal ions, which serve as the structure’s corners, with long organic molecules acting as connectors, they built crystal-like structures with enormous internal cavities. These cavities can trap, release, or even react with other molecules, making MOFs a potential solution for some of humanity’s biggest problems, from climate change to clean water shortages.
A Diamond with Empty Rooms
The story begins in the late 1980s with Richard Robson, a chemist at the University of Melbourne. Inspired by a wooden molecular model used in his classroom, Robson wondered: could he use the natural geometry of atoms to build new molecular structures, not just single molecules, but entire frameworks?
In 1989, he combined copper ions with a four-armed molecule, each arm tipped with a group that loved to stick to copper. When the mixture settled, Robson found something astonishing: the atoms had arranged themselves into a crystal with a pattern similar to a diamond, but with countless empty cavities inside.
It was, as he described it, like a diamond full of rooms. But the early versions were fragile; the frameworks collapsed easily. Still, Robson’s work lit a spark. He had proven that molecules could be guided to build themselves into predictable, spacious structures.
Kitagawa’s Persistence
In Japan, Susumu Kitagawa picked up the challenge in the 1990s. His philosophy was simple but powerful: “Even useless things can become useful.” At first, his molecular constructions were unstable; they could trap molecules like acetone, but had no practical function.
Undeterred, Kitagawa kept experimenting. In 1997, he achieved a breakthrough. Using metals like cobalt, nickel, and zinc linked with an organic molecule called bipyridine, he built a structure full of open channels. These channels could be filled and emptied with gases like oxygen and methane, all without the structure collapsing.
For the first time, a scientist had built a stable, porous material that behaved like a sponge for gases. Kitagawa soon realised that his materials were flexible too; they could “breathe”, expanding and contracting as gases entered or left. It was as if the molecule had lungs.
Yaghi’s Dream of Order
Meanwhile, across the Pacific, Omar Yaghi was following his own path to molecular design. Born in Amman, Jordan, and raised in a single-room home without electricity, he found his fascination for chemistry as a boy sneaking into a locked school library.
By the time he became a professor in the United States, Yaghi was determined to bring order to chemistry’s chaos. Traditionally, chemists mix substances and heat them, hoping for a desired reaction but often ending up with messy by-products. Yaghi wanted precision, chemistry like Lego, where each piece clicks perfectly into place.
In 1995, he created the first structures he called metal–organic frameworks, or MOFs. Four years later, in 1999, he unveiled a superstar: MOF-5. It was stable even at 300°C and could hold an internal surface area the size of a football field in just a few grams of powder.
With Yaghi’s work, MOFs became not just scientific curiosities but potential tools for real-world use.
Chemistry’s Spacious Revolution
The implications of MOFs are immense. Because their internal spaces can be precisely engineered, they can be tailored for specific tasks such as harvesting water from desert air, capturing carbon dioxide, storing hydrogen and toxic gases, and cleaning polluted water.
Yaghi’s team demonstrated that MOFs could absorb water vapour at night and release it as drinkable water under sunlight. Factories and power plants could use them to trap greenhouse gases before they reach the atmosphere. Certain MOFs can make safer fuel storage possible and protect workers in hazardous environments. Others can filter out harmful chemicals like PFAS, so-called “forever chemicals”, from water sources.
In the words of Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, “Metal–organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for custom-made materials with new functions.”
From Idea to Industry
From an idea born out of wooden classroom models, MOFs have become one of the fastest-growing areas in chemistry. Researchers have now created tens of thousands of different MOFs, each with unique structures and purposes. Some are being tested in commercial applications, from electronics manufacturing to environmental clean-up.
For example, a MOF known as CALF-20 is already being used in Canada to capture carbon dioxide emissions. Another, MIL-101, can break down crude oil residues and antibiotics in polluted water.
Yaghi’s laboratory in California continues to refine these molecular frameworks, using artificial intelligence to design new versions faster than ever before.
A Shared Triumph
All three laureates, Robson, Kitagawa, and Yaghi, share a rare trait: they pursued curiosity even when others dismissed their work as useless. Their discoveries prove that patience and imagination can change how we see the invisible world.
Today, their “molecular buildings” may hold the key to a cleaner planet. Whether it’s turning desert air into drinking water or trapping carbon to slow climate change, MOFs could reshape the chemistry of our everyday lives.
And to think, it all began with a teacher, a set of wooden balls, and the idea that even molecules deserve a little room to breathe.
In essence, the Nobel-winning trio didn’t just make molecules. They built homes for them, and possibly, for humanity’s future.
