Nobel Prize 2025: Kitagawa, Robson, Yaghi Win In Chemistry For Pioneering Metal–Organic Frameworks
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Kitagawa, Robson, and Yaghi for pioneering Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). Robson's initial unstable structure was stabilized by Kitagawa and Yaghi.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Wednesday awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi for their pioneering work on a new class of materials: Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs).
The three scientists were honoured, according to the Academy, “for the development of metal–organic frameworks.” Their collective achievement marks a revolution in molecular architecture, transforming how chemists design materials for everything from gas storage to drug delivery.
How a Flawed Diamond Sparked a Revolution
The journey towards MOFs began with Australian chemist Richard Robson in 1989, as detailed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Robson sought to leverage the intrinsic bonding characteristics of atoms in a novel way. He successfully combined “positively charged copper ions with a four-armed molecule,” each arm ending in a chemical group attracted to the copper ions.
When these components were mixed, they spontaneously assembled into a “well-ordered, spacious crystal.” The resulting structure was described as being “like a diamond filled with innumerable cavities.” While Robson immediately grasped the vast potential of his molecular construction, the initial MOF was highly unstable and prone to collapse.
Kitagawa and Yaghi Provide a Firm Foundation
The foundational concept established by Robson was soon stabilised and expanded upon by the parallel and groundbreaking work of Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi. Between 1992 and 2003, they made a series of individual yet “revolutionary discoveries” that turned MOFs into a robust field of chemistry.
Susumu Kitagawa, a Japanese chemist, was instrumental in exploring the practical utility of these porous materials. He demonstrated that “gases can flow in and out of the constructions” and predicted that MOFs could be engineered to be flexible. This capability for gas exchange and dynamic behaviour opened new avenues for industrial applications.
Rational Design for Tailored Properties
Meanwhile, Omar M. Yaghi, a chemist from Jordan and the United States, focused on material resilience and customisation. Yaghi successfully developed a particularly “very stable MOF” and, critically, showed that this structure “can be modified using rational design, giving it new and desirable properties.”
The Academy stated that Kitagawa, Robson, and Yaghi have been collectively recognised for “the development of a new type of molecular architecture.” Their innovations allow chemists to precisely control the internal dimensions and chemical functionality of these materials, opening the door to tailored solutions for capturing carbon dioxide, separating petrochemicals, and storing hydrogen for future clean energy technologies.
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