Metal-organic frameworks: Nobel-winning tiny ‘sponge crystals’ with an astonishing amount of inner space

Recommendable! An overview article.

"The 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to Richard Robson, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yaghi on Oct. 8, 2025, for the development of metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, which are tunable crystal structures with extremely high porosity. These are a class of materials that have truly changed the way scientists design and think about matter, inspiring progress in various applications. ...

Metal-organic frameworks are like crystalline scaffolds built from two ingredients: metals that act like connective joints and organic – that is, carbon-based – molecules that behave as bridges to link those joints in a repeating pattern. ...

So far, scientists have synthesized over 90,000 MOFs, and computational chemists have predicted hundreds of thousands more. Few material families offer this much versatility. ..."

Metal-organic frameworks: Nobel-winning tiny ‘sponge crystals’ with an astonishing amount of inner space

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