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The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to three chemists who developed metal-organic frameworks: crystals full of tiny pores that can be designed to trap chosen gases or molecules, such as water vapour or carbon dioxide.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2025

ScienceDesign

The story behind the card

The prize was shared by Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi. In 1989 Robson showed that copper ions and a four-armed organic molecule could link into a roomy, diamond-like crystal. In 1997 Kitagawa made frameworks that stayed stable while gases flowed in and out, and he later showed they could flex. Yaghi built very sturdy frameworks and showed they could be designed to order; his team introduced the name 'metal-organic framework' in 1995. The pores give them a huge inner surface: a few grams of some MOFs hold as much surface as a football pitch. They are being used to pull drinking water from desert air, store gases and capture carbon dioxide.

Türkçe oku
2025 Nobel Kimya Ödülü, metal-organik kafesleri geliştiren üç kimyacıya verildi. Bunlar içi minik gözeneklerle dolu kristallerdir ve su buharı ya da karbondioksit gibi seçilen gazları veya molekülleri tutacak biçimde tasarlanabilir.
2025 Nobel Kimya Ödülü

Ödülü Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa ve Omar Yaghi paylaştı. Robson 1989'da bakır iyonlarıyla dört kollu bir organik molekülün birleşerek içi boşluklu, elmas benzeri bir kristal oluşturabildiğini gösterdi. Kitagawa 1997'de içine gaz girip çıktığında dağılmayan kafesler yaptı, sonra da bu yapıların esneyebildiğini gösterdi. Yaghi ise çok dayanıklı kafesler üretti ve bunların istenen özelliklere göre tasarlanabileceğini kanıtladı; “metal-organik kafes” (İngilizce kısaltmasıyla MOF) adı da 1995'te onun ekibinden çıktı. Gözenekler sayesinde iç yüzey çok geniştir: Bazı MOF'ların birkaç gramı bir futbol sahası kadar yüzey barındırır. Bu malzemeler bugün çöl havasından içme suyu çekmek, gaz depolamak ve karbondioksit tutmak için kullanılıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Metal-organic framework
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