Overview

• Sweden’s yal SwSwedish Academy of Sciences named Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi the 2025 Chemistry laureates for developing metal–organic frameworks, with the 11 million Swedish kronor prize shared equally.
• Metal–organic frameworks are crystals built from metal ions linked by organic molecules to form ordered, highly porous structures that allow gases and other chemicals to move through them.
• The committee highlighted complementary breakthroughs: Robson’s 1989 porous frameworks, Kitagawa’s demonstrations of gas adsorption and flexibility, and Yaghi’s highly stable, rationally designable MOFs such as MOF-5.
• Demonstrated and proposed uses include harvesting water from desert air, capturing carbon dioxide, removing PFAS and other pollutants from water, storing toxic gases, catalyzing reactions and storing hydrogen.
• The field now encompasses tens of thousands of MOFs and was praised for its "enormous potential" for custom-made functions; the winners are affiliated with Kyoto University, the University of Melbourne and the University of California, Berkeley.