Scientists Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a new molecular structure that produces materials that could help solve problems such as climate change and freshwater scarcity.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm announced on Wednesday that Susumu Kitagawa from Japan, Richard Robson from the UK and Omar M. Yaghi from Jordan would share the 11 million krona (£1.2 million) prize for creating molecular structures with large voids through which gases and other chemicals can flow.
The Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry 2025 have created molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow. These constructions, metal–organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyse chemical reactions. Through the development of metal–organic frameworks, the laureates have provided chemists with new opportunities for solving some of the challenges we face.
Kitagawa told the Nobel press conference that he was deeply honoured by the award.
“My dream is to capture air and separate air to – for instance, in CO2 or oxygen or water or something – and convert this to useful materials using renewable energy,” he said.
One promising field is carbon capture in cement manufacturing, one of dirtiest industrial processes that accounts for 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions. MOFs are already being used at some cement plants to capture it before it is being released into the atmosphere.
“I don’t see that as hype, that is an implementation of science, basic science, all the way to benefiting society,” Yaghi told a press conference.
After the discoveries, chemists have built tens of thousands of different MOFs, some of which “may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges”, the Academy said, adding that additional uses included separating toxic PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, from water and breaking down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment.
A Nobel for climate-fighting molecules
Scientists from Japan, the UK and Jordan were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a discovery with the potential to help combat climate change.
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi will share 11 million kronor ($1.2 million) for creating molecular constructions with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said in a statement on Wednesday.
Researchers have already used these structures to capture carbon dioxide, store hydrogen, harvest water from desert air and extract pollutants from water. There’s potential for use in industrial-scale processes including in the energy, electronics and pharmaceutical sectors.
The metal-organic frameworks that won the Nobel Prize can be thought of as a very spacious studio apartment, with rooms able to host all sorts of substances. Kitagawa, Robson and Yaghi were the first to create them and demonstrate their potential. Since then, other chemists have been able to design tens of thousands of frameworks, making new chemical wonders possible.
Robson first got inspiration for the discovery while preparing for a chemistry lesson where students had to build molecules using wooden balls and rods. It was 1974, and Robson, then a teacher at the University of Melbourne, asked the university’s workshop to drill holes into the wooden balls for the activity.
But those holes couldn’t be randomly placed. While marking where they should be drilled, Robson realized there was a vast amount of information baked into the positioning. He eventually discovered new molecular constructions that formed a regular crystalline structure, just like carbon atoms in a diamond. Unlike diamonds, however, the new structure contained a vast number of large cavities.
Kitagawa, a professor at Kyoto University, had another breakthrough in 1997, where, using Robson’s principles, he created a material that could absorb and release methane, nitrogen and oxygen without changing its shape. Later, he developed a flexible material that behaves somewhat like a lung — changing shape when filled with water or methane, and returning to its original form when emptied.
Yaghi, a professor at UC Berkeley who grew up in Jordan without electricity or running water, contributed another leap in the research. He discovered it is possible to modify and change the frameworks rationally.
Now, the electronics industry can use the porous materials to contain some of the toxic gases required to produce semiconductors. Materials that can capture carbon dioxide from factories and power stations are being tested to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some may be used for breaking down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment.