Nobel Prize 2025 in Chemistry awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson & Omar M. Yaghi for development of ‘metal–organic frameworks ‘
The announcement was made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday.
The innovation behind MOFs lies in the way metal ions act as cornerstones bonded together by long, carbon-based molecules. Together, these components form organized crystals containing large voids. By carefully selecting different building blocks, chemists can design MOFs to trap specific substances, direct chemical reactions, and even conduct electricity.
“Metal-organic frameworks have enormous potential, bringing previously unforeseen opportunities for tailor-made materials with new functions,” said Heiner Linke, chairman of the Nobel Committee on Chemistry.
The story of MOFs began in 1989, when Richard Robson explored a new use of the natural properties of atoms. He combined positively charged copper ions into a four-armed molecule, each arm ending with a chemical group pulled from the copper. The result was a well-arranged, spacious crystal—a diamond filled with countless voids. Robson quickly recognized the potential of this structure, but early designs were unstable and prone to collapse.
Between 1992 and 2003, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi built on Robson’s work, providing a lasting foundation for Molecular Architecture. Kitagawa showed that gases could flow in and out of structures and predicted their elasticity. Yaghi, meanwhile, created highly stable MOFs and showed that these frameworks could be rationally modified to gain new, useful properties. Because of their pioneering work, chemists around the world have unlocked tens of thousands of MOFs that could address humanity’s most pressing challenges. These include capturing carbon dioxide, filtering PFA chemicals from water, breaking down pharmaceutical traces in the environment, and even harvesting water from desert air.
Nobel season for 2025 began Monday with the Prize in Medicine awarded to Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi for their discoveries regarding peripheral immune tolerance, a process that prevents the immune system from attacking the body’s own cells.
The Physics Prize on Tuesday went to John Clarke, Michel H DeVoret and John M Martinis for groundbreaking research on quantum tunneling at Macroscopic Scales: a phenomenon that could transform digital communication and computation.
The week’s announcements continue with the literature prize on Thursday, followed by the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and the Economics Prize next Monday.
All Nobel Laureates will receive their awards at the annual ceremony on December 10: the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
Nobel, a Swedish inventor and industrialist best known for creating dynamite, established the prizes in his 1895 will, leaving much of his fortune to honor those who had “contributed the greatest benefit to humanity.”
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