The metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) developed by the 2025 Nobel Chemistry laureates represent one of the most significant advances in materials science. MOFs have an extraordinarily large internal surface area — a single gram of MOF material can have a surface area equivalent to a football field when unfolded.

Richard Robson at University of Melbourne first demonstrated in the 1990s that metal ions and organic linkers could form extended porous networks. Susumu Kitagawa at Kyoto University showed these frameworks could absorb and store gas molecules. Omar Yaghi at UC Berkeley developed reticular chemistry — a method to design and synthesise MOFs with precise pore sizes and chemical properties.

Key applications include: (1) Water harvesting from desert air — MOF-based devices can extract drinking water even in regions with less than 20% humidity; (2) Carbon capture — MOFs can selectively trap CO2 from power plant flue gases; (3) Hydrogen storage for clean energy; (4) Drug delivery systems that release medication in controlled doses. Over 100,000 different MOFs have been synthesised to date, with thousands more predicted by AI.