Scientific pores: Nobel Prize in Chemistry given for "molecular lego"

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the creation of metal–organic frameworks. Three laureates have made a decisive contribution to the development of the "molecular constructor", which makes it possible to obtain a material containing voids for storing gas or other substances. According to Russian scientists, the technology has a huge number of practical applications, as it can be used to produce an infinite number of different structures. This includes materials for air purification, obtaining water in deserts, managing chemical reactions, manufacturing and targeted drug delivery, creating batteries for hydrogen energy, computing devices and new data storage methods.

Crystals with voids

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Susumu Kitagawa of Japan, Richard Robson of England, and Omar M. Yagi of Jordan for the creation of metal–organic frameworks (IOC), a new class of porous polymer materials. Their molecules contain voids into which gases and other substances can penetrate. This property allows you to solve many important application tasks. The Nobel Committee announced this on October 8 in Stockholm.

"Metal–organic frameworks can be used to produce water from the air in deserts, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases, or catalyze chemical reactions. Their creation opens up new opportunities for chemists to overcome some of the challenges we face," the award organizers said in an official statement.

Richard Robson was the first to start research in this area in 1989. He experimented with the properties of atoms and combined positively charged copper ions with a four-beam molecule. It has a special structure in which the central atom is connected to four others forming a tetrahedron. This is how the scientist obtained a porous crystal similar to a diamond. Later, in the period from 1992 to 2003, Susumu Kitagawa and Omar Yagi developed this method of molecular construction in the course of independent research.

IOCs are built on the principle of a "molecular constructor". Voids remain inside their crystal lattices, resembling invisible "rooms" where gas or liquid molecules can penetrate and move freely, explained Valentin Ananikov, head of the laboratory at the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, chairman of the Expert Council of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and a member of the scientific committee of the National Prize in the Field of Future Technologies "Challenge".

— The significance of the laureates' works lies in the fact that they have discovered a fundamentally new architecture of matter — materials that can be created "to order", selecting properties for specific needs. This opens up almost limitless prospects for science and technology of the 21st century, from energy and ecology to medicine and industry," he said.

In addition to the tasks already mentioned, metal-organic frameworks can be used as catalysts for the production of polymers and pharmaceutical substances, for the creation of ultra-high purity metals, additives to lubricating oils, as well as in the production of materials with potential applications in photocatalysis and electronics, Danila Saranin, head of the Laboratory of Advanced Solar Energy at NUST MISIS, told Izvestia.

Drug manufacturing and computing devices

The structures for which the prize was awarded occupy an intermediate position between organic compounds and metals: in them, a metal atom is connected to organic molecules, and all this is intertwined into a single frame, said Sofia Morozova, head of the Laboratory of Ion Exchange Membrane Technologies at MIPT.

— Due to the controlled pore size, they can be used to accelerate chemical reactions. That is, they can be analogues of enzymes (biological catalysts. — Editor's note), but they have a much simpler structure. They can be used, for example, to convert co₂ into other molecules of the pharmaceutical substances we need," she said.

The discovery of the IOC changed the very philosophy of creating functional substances with a greater focus on "green" chemistry and had a huge impact on related fields. These ideas have reached advanced laboratories in Russia, where they are being integrated into research at the intersection of chemistry, photonics and information technology, said Ekaterina Skorb, director of the Megafacultet of Life Sciences and REC of Infochemistry at ITMO University.

— The laureates have proved that the most promising materials can be created by designing not only their atomic composition, but also their spatial architecture. This is confirmed by the indicators: The IOC is breaking all records in terms of specific surface area: up to 7,000 m2/g is the area of a football field in a teaspoon of powder. This is critically important for adsorption," she said.

The substances can be used to collect and store hydrogen and methane for environmentally friendly fuel cell transport. In medicine, they can be used to implement targeted drug delivery to specific organs and tissues. In electronics, the goal is to create highly sensitive sensors and new types of conductors. The technology is already being used in experimental gas storage systems for cars, the expert noted.

This area is also developing in Russia. For example, ITMO scientists use the methodology in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of various sciences, including for the development of alternative information processing devices.

There are nanometer-sized pores in metal-organic frameworks. Thanks to this, they can work like a molecular sieve: they can pass through molecules of a suitable size, but filter out too large compounds, said Konstantin Katin, professor at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI.

— After the first experiments conducted by Nobel laureates, the structure and stability of metal-organic frameworks have been constantly improved. They are now used in many fields, including solar panels, hydrogen storage, and industrial waste treatment," he said.

"Molecular Lego"

According to Evgeny Kulikov, associate professor of the Department of Physical Chemistry at MIPT, there are many inorganic substances with such a structure in nature, for example, natural frame aluminosilicates, zeolites, which have long been used as the basis of catalysts, water softeners and molecular sieves for drying organic substances.

"However, the developments of the Nobel laureates make it possible to obtain organic substances with predictable volume and structure of the "chambers" inside crystals, which means completely new opportunities for applied chemistry — from water and air purification to new approaches to catalysis, from safe storage of hydrogen fuel to obtaining new products of organic and inorganic synthesis," said Evgeny Kulikov.

Russian scientists are well acquainted with the works of Nobel laureate Omar Yaga devoted to the creation and description of the IOC, and they have long expected to award him an award, said Mikhail Soldatov, head of the Russian Science Foundation grant project, associate professor at the SFU International Research Institute for Intelligent Materials.

— The IOC's surface area can reach thousands of square meters per gram. This happens only in certain types of activated carbons and some other types of substances. Since we can use a wide variety of components when creating them, we get "molecular legos" from which we can assemble an infinite number of structures that can have an infinite number of applications. This probably influenced the decision of the Nobel Committee," he said.

In the future, these substances will make it possible to create new catalysts for hydrogen energy purposes, for example, hydrogen storage or new materials for memory elements of computing devices, the specialist added.

It was already clear several years ago that organometallic frameworks are a new direction in chemistry that will attract great interest. All three of them who have received the Nobel Prize are undoubtedly worthy of this award. Each of them has made fundamentally new steps in obtaining a variety of organometallic frameworks, said Evgeny Antipov, Head of the Department of Electrochemistry at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Faculty of Chemistry, Professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, winner of the National Prize in the Field of Future Technologies "Challenge".