Overview

• The Royal Swedish Academy said the materials could become a key tool for addressing 21st-century environmental and energy challenges, describing near‑limitless design variations.
• Engineered frameworks can selectively capture carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust using filters that regenerate with lower energy than conventional methods.
• Research led by Omar Yaghi demonstrated devices that use MOF sorbents to harvest potable water from very dry air using only sunlight, producing several liters per day per kilogram of material.
• Applications under development or in use include PFAS removal from water, containment of toxic gases, gas storage for vehicles, catalysis, battery improvements and targeted drug delivery.
• The field grew from Richard Robson’s 1989 porous constructs through key advances by Susumu Kitagawa and Yaghi in the 1990s and now encompasses more than 100,000 MOF and COF variants.