Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025

Encapsulating guest molecules inside host structures ranging from soft, flexible enzymes to rigid, porous zeolites has led to developments in many areas, including catalysis, sensing and separation. This Review highlights how metal–organic frameworks — materials formed by linking metal centres with organic ligands — can combine softness with regularity to produce dynamic, yet crystalline, structures that may prove useful for a range of applications.

Nanoscale porous materials show unique properties that can be important for catalytic, separation and gas-storage applications. A strategy to yield crystalline porous compounds decorated with reactive nitrenes that can chemically trap and convert guest molecules by light stimulation is now reported.

The capture, storage and conversion of gases such as hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide may play a key role in the provision of carbon-neutral energy. This Review explores the role of metal–organic frameworks — porous networks of metal ions or clusters connected by organic linkers — for such applications.

Mixed matrix membranes can separate CO₂ from flue gas mixtures but increasing selectivity without sacrificing permeability remains challenging. Selectivity can be increased with little loss in permeability by using nanoparticulate, amine-functionalized metal–organic framework fillers.

Catalysts for CO₂ photo- or electroreduction must balance activity, selectivity and efficiency. Here, the authors discuss the use of metal–organic frameworks for these processes and the role reticular chemistry may play in designing new catalysts.

Metal-organic frameworks are typically characterized by a variety of techniques, but most only provide information on properties as an average of a bulk sample. Here, Wuttke and colleagues demonstrate that fluorescence imaging and lifetime analysis allows access to local information on defects and functional groups.

Solid acid heterogeneous catalysts are widely used in industrial chemical processes, but understanding the exact molecular structures responsible for catalytic activity has proved difficult. Now, the structure of the strong Brønsted acid site for a sulfated zirconium-based metal–organic framework has been shown to consist of a specific arrangement of adsorbed water and sulfate moieties on the zirconium clusters.

The latest progress in the development of metal–organic frameworks and their integration in an apparatus for water harvesting are reviewed.

Flexible metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) in which guest uptake and release occur above certain threshold pressures are attractive adsorbents. Now, the gated sorption behaviour of such a zinc-based mixed-ligand MOF has been tuned to match the narrow temperature and pressure range required for safe, efficient acetylene storage by adjusting the ratio of two different functional groups on its benzenedicarboxylate ligands.

Metal–organic frameworks, porous coordination network materials constructed with metal ions and organic molecules, have grown over the past 20 years into an innovative chemistry that has contributed to solutions for the problems faced by humanity in the environment, resources, energy and health.

The authors demonstrate efficient separation of water isotopologues at room temperature using two porous coordination polymers that amplify their diffusion-rate difference.

Incorporating electron donor functionalities into porous coordination frameworks enables the strong binding of electron-withdrawing guests, but such binding typically occurs irreversibly. Here, a structurally dynamic 2D coordination network incorporating an electron donating group is found to selectively and reversibly bind oxygen and nitrous oxide, while also exhibiting large structural deformations after guest removal.

Sorbent-assisted atmospheric water harvesting is one of the technologies currently explored to produce clean water especially in dry land locations. A metal–organic framework harvester has been shown to harvest water effectively in the Death Valley.

NCOMMS-24-44031B Nanozymes have found wide applications in various fields, but the deviation between the working and optimal pHs of nanozymes limits their practical applications. Here, the authors report a strategy to modulate the microenvironmental pHs of metal–organic framework nanozymes, enabling them to exhibit optimal activity under neutral pH conditions.

The design of host-guest systems for switchable recognition of guests upon the change of external stimuli is challenging due to the invariable host-guest affinity. Here, the authors encode a dynamic motion into a porous crystal to regulate the diffusion of CO2 and C2H2 allowing the crystal to switch the gas recognition selectivity by temperature.

Mixed-phase coordination polymers are often formed when using ternary components. Here, conditions for the selective formation of [Co₂(4,4′-bpy)₃(NO₃)₄] are deduced, which shows unique gas adsorption squeezing through seemingly impassable narrow windows due to local structural flexibility.

Large language models can accelerate reticular chemistry by guiding material design, data interpretation and discovery. This Perspective discusses how large language models integrate into laboratory workflows and modular artificial intelligence systems, streamlining data-driven research for new materials and tackling crystallization challenges.

An up–down approach for discovering metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) identifies 26 unknown Zr-based MOF configurations and provides a valuable guide for synthetic chemists to expand the chemical space of MOFs.

An optimization algorithm is used to discover guest molecules based on knowing only the structure of the host. The molecules are represented as 3D volumes, optimized to improve host–guest interaction and converted into SMILES using a transformer model.

Centring structure-directing agents govern structure assembly to consistently obtain sodalite topology backbone, yielding more than 20 isoreticular zeolite-like metal–organic frameworks with tailored pore apertures and porosity.

Recently ideal spin filtering ability was demonstrated in the Dy-L-Tar metal-organic framework. In this work the authors show that this unusual effect emerges from the asymmetric display of alpha and beta spin states around the Fermi level, composed of the f states of the lanthanide.

In this approach, metal–organic framework (MOF) glasses are synthesized by the desolvation of mononuclear metal complexes. The MOF glasses are composed of transition metals and either carboxylate, pyridyl or azolate ligands. Their porous structures and formation of monoliths are regulated in this process.

Constructing crystalline materials with specific stimuli-responsive dynamics and controlled molecular motion affords opportunities for innovative functionality and applications. Here, the authors discuss recent developments in dynamic solid-state framework materials across a range of material classes, exploring key phenomena associated with such complex dynamics.

One of the most advanced and challenging topics in modern reticular chemistry is structure multivariation. This Perspective defines the fundamentals of multivariation by considering sequences of chemical species as its true essence, thereby addressing the classification of multivariate structures and presenting new concepts for their analysis and application.

This Review discusses progress in organizing the spatial arrangement and motion of molecular machines within solid frameworks such that they might be able to perform useful macroscopic work. We conclude with a discussion of a new non-equilibrium adsorption phenomenon, dubbed mechanisorption.

Methodology adapted from data science sparked the field of materials informatics, and materials databases are at the heart of it. Applying artificial intelligence to these databases will allow the prediction of the properties of complex organic crystals.

The study of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) using time-resolved techniques is relatively unexplored, despite being key to an understanding of their chemical and physical properties. This Review summarizes the applicable techniques and how they can be used to probe MOF dynamics.

The development of metal–organic magnets that combine tunable magnetic properties with other desirable physical properties remains challenging despite numerous potential applications. Now, a mixed-valent chromium–triazolate material has been prepared that exhibits itinerant ferromagnetism with a magnetic ordering temperature of 225 K, a high conductivity and large negative magnetoresistance (23%).

The development of structural design methodologies in reticular chemistry promotes the discovery of periodic solids, such as metal–organic frameworks. In this Review, we highlight the well-developed and cutting-edge structural design methodologies, focusing on the role of building blocks, targeted nets and isoreticular chemistry.

This Perspective discusses the prospects of assembling multiple molecular machines within ordered frameworks, with the goal of producing artificial molecular factories in which molecular motions are coupled, synchronized and amplified across multiple length scales, leading to robust and stimuli-responsive solids.

As the field of metal-organic frameworks is maturing, understanding the dynamics of open frameworks is progressing and rational approaches are under development. Here, the authors outline challenges and potential routes to engineering the spatio-temporal evolution of dynamic metal-organic frameworks.

When water is held in a porous material and cooled below its freezing point the typical molecular interactions leading to crystallisation can be inhibited leading to a supercooled liquid state. Here, the authors use dielectric spectroscopy to analyse a metal organic framework with a symmetrical nanometer sized porous structure and reveal the temperature dependent processes and how they compare with those of bulk water.

Introducing multiplicity and variation into the components of metal–organic frameworks has emerged as new fascinating directions in reticular chemistry. In this Review, the variances in the framework backbone, functionality and metal, and their leading to sequences of chemical information, are highlighted. Anisotropy in these structures is imposed by the variance and realized along a specific direction.

A stable zinc-based metal–organic framework known to retain its porosity and crystallinity after exposure to moisture has been shown to undergo structural changes at the molecular level on adsorbing water. This dynamic and reversible response to the presence of water, including the rearrangement of bonds, is suggested to be the reason for the hydrolytic stability of this particular metal–organic framework.

Porphyrins have been incorporated into metal–organic frameworks in a periodic fashion in order to exploit their unique photophysical and electrochemical properties. This article reviews progress in the field, focusing on the fundamental physical properties that arise in porphyrin-based MOFs.

Soft porous crystals (SPC) are a class of materials widely known for their counterintuitive properties such as negative thermal expansion and negative gas absorption. The authors present a semi-analytical thermodynamic analysis on the conditions required for negative gas adsorption as well as its correlation with pressure-induced breathing in SPCs.

Porosity in metal–organic materials typically relies on highly ordered crystalline networks, which hinders material processing and morphological control. Here, the authors use metal–organic polyhedra as porous monomers in supramolecular polymerization to produce colloidal spheres and gels with intrinsic microporosity.

The structure and porosity of a zinc imidazolate framework above the melting point was studied with neutron and X-ray scattering, and molecular dynamics. The porosity and local bonding of the framework persist even in the liquid phase.

Although metal–organic frameworks are often seen as rigid crystalline structures, there is growing evidence that large-scale flexibility, the presence of defects, and long-range disorder are not the exception, but rather the norm. Here we propose that these concepts are inescapably intertwined, and the interfaces between them offer prospects for enhancement of materials' functionalities.

Correlated defects are known to be closely linked to material properties throughout condensed matter research. Here, the authors examine the defects in a canonical metal–organic framework with an array of crystallographic and computational techniques and suggest they are correlated rather than random.

The spatial organization of porous coordination-polymer crystals into higher-order structures is critical for their integration in heterogeneous catalysts, separation systems and electrochemical devices. A method for spatially controlling the nucleation site leading to the formation of mesoscopic architecture in porous coordination polymers, in both two and three dimensions, is now demonstrated.

It is extremely difficult to separate tritium from radioactively contaminated water. Here the authors introduce catalytic hydrogen isotope exchange to water distillation, realizing excellent detritiation performance.

Tandem electro-biocatalytic systems present a versatile platform for producing a variety of synthetic products using CO₂ as a starting material. Here direct ocean carbon capture is incorporated into an electrolysis scheme to produce formic acid from CO₂ dissolved in seawater that is subsequently converted to succinate in a bioreactor.

Conventional entrapped ¹²⁹Xe with low signal intensity limits in vivo applications. Here, the authors developed a MOF-based reporter that enhances signal intensity, achieves femtomolar detection, and enables chemical shift-encoded MRI in rat lungs.

Porous coordination polymers (PCPs) are commonly used in gas separation processes but developing PCPs that work at high temperatures and feature both high uptake capacity and selectivity remains challenging. Here, the authors report diffusion-rate sieving of propylene/propane at 300 K by constructing a PCP whose global and local dynamics cooperatively govern the adsorption process via gate opening for propylene and diffusion regulation for propane.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous materials that may find application in numerous energy settings, such as carbon capture and hydrogen-storage technologies. Here, the authors review predictive computational design and discovery of MOFs for separation and storage of energy-relevant gases.

A polyamine-functionalized covalent organic framework, COF-999, can be used as a material for direct air capture of CO₂ from open air.

A framework that integrates materials, process design, techno-economics and life-cycle assessment can be used to accelerate the development of carbon-capture technology as we aim for a net-zero world.

The design of host-guest systems for switchable recognition of guests upon the change of external stimuli is challenging due to the invariable host-guest affinity. Here, the authors encode a dynamic motion into a porous crystal to regulate the diffusion of CO2 and C2H2 allowing the crystal to switch the gas recognition selectivity by temperature.

Porosity of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks can be preserved beyond glass transition and melt processing. Here centimetre-scale porous glasses are demonstrated, whereas liquid processing enables fine-tuning of the size of the gas-transporting channels for molecular sieving.

It is challenging to treat emerging organic contaminants such as pharmaceutical compounds. Using the proposed plant-based zirconium–ellagate framework, this study demonstrates high removal efficiencies of emerging organic contaminants from real untampered municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent.

Detection of gas radionuclides is limited in sensitivity with present methods, but may be useful in energy, security, medical and other sectors. In this work, gas-concentrating porous scintillating metal–organic frameworks are demonstrated for gas radionuclide detection.

CH₄ selectivity in CO₂ photoreduction is a kinetic challenge as a result of the complex pathway involving many intermediates. Here, the authors present dual-metal-site pairs embedded in a metal-organic framework structure with flexible adaptive active sites leading to high CH₄ activity and selectivity.

Light-responsive smart materials hold promise for a solution to water desalination. Here the authors report an adsorbent based on a metal–organic framework that quickly adsorbs multiple ions from water in the dark, followed by release of these salts on exposure to sunlight.

Gas sorption studies in porous materials typically reflect their overall gas uptake. Now, using a ‘gas adsorption crystallography’ method, the gas adsorption isotherms of two metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been quantitatively decomposed into sub-isotherms that reflect the pore-filling behaviour of various guests in the different types of pores present in the MOFs.

The synthesis of ethanol via CO₂ hydrogenation is a challenging process, often hampered by low selectivity. This work reports a Zr₁₂ cluster-based metal–organic framework as support for cooperative Cu(i) sites that catalyse CO₂ hydrogenation to ethanol with remarkable selectivity upon promotion with caesium. Credit: Cloud background, CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

MOFs have found limited application in catalysis so far, as the result of their limited thermal and hydrolytic stability. Now, non-thermal plasma is shown to be able to promote and sustain the activity of HKUST-1 and other MOFs towards the water–gas shift reaction despite the presence of water. [In a previous version of the graphical abstract, CO conversion was incorrectly labelled CO₂ conversion.]

SO₂ and NO₂ are primary causes of air pollution and severe breathing problems worldwide. This Review gives an overview of the recent advances in the use of metal–organic framework materials to capture and remove these toxic gases from air.

Separating ethylene from ethane is highly challenging as they have very similar physical properties. Here, a metal–organic framework is reported that, owing to its pore size and rigidity, adsorbs ethylene but almost completely excludes ethane under ambient conditions.

MOF-303 is a promising water-harvesting sorbent that can take up water at low relative humidity and release it under mild heating. This metal–organic framework can be made at different scales using the four green synthetic methods described in this protocol.

Sub-micrometre MOF particles are incorporated into polymers to form mixed matrix membranes. Molecular sieving enables performance far beyond current limits for two applications, butane isomer separation and combined CO₂/H₂S removal from natural gas.

This Review details the structural and chemical features of state-of-the-art metal–organic frameworks for their application in the entire carbon cycle of capturing, purifying and transforming CO₂ into valuable products.

Using MOFs as active electrodes in electrochemical double layer capacitors has so far proved difficult. An electrically conductive MOF used as an electrode is now shown to exhibit electrochemical performance similar to most carbon-based materials.

Methodologies capable of directly visualizing and detecting gases are important for a wide variety of applications that involve instantaneous decision-making in complex environments and locations. A strategy for the capture and detection of gases by co-operative structural transformations of a flexible porous coordination polymer and fluorescent reporter molecules is now reported.

Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi pioneered the creation of metal–organic frameworks, which can capture and store molecules such as carbon dioxide.

Metal-organic frameworks were the next big thing in chemistry when they were invented more than three decades ago. Now, these intriguing materials are becoming commercial tools for capturing carbon dioxide and harvesting water from the air.

Ahead of his 60th birthday, Omar Yaghi discussed his life in science so far and where he believes is the exciting space for future developments.

Metal–organic frameworks hold promise as electrocatalysts for water splitting, but their large-scale production remains a challenge. This study reports on a scalable synthetic approach to fabricate large-area metal–organic framework-based electrodes, achieving high catalytic activity and stability in practical alkaline water electrolysis.

ZeoBind is developed for high-throughput molecule screening in zeolite synthesis. Here 2.3 million organic structure-directing agents are enumerated and predictive models for binding affinity are developed; the screening is experimentally validated for two zeolites.

The development of highly stable and functional carbon–carbon bonded covalent organic framework (COF) linkages is desirable but challenging. Now a postsynthetic modification strategy has been applied to olefin-linked COFs, resulting in the synthesis of coumarin-linked COFs with high crystallinity, good porosity, outstanding stability and interesting photoluminescence properties.

Metal–organic frameworks have a range of desirable properties that make them suitable for application in drug delivery, imaging and new treatment modalities. In this Primer, Lázaro et al. discuss the best practices in synthesis and characterization of metal–organic frameworks for biomedicine.

Metal–organic framework (MOF) materials are promising photocatalysts for solar-driven fuel production from CO₂. Here, built on a literature survey and data macroanalysis, we examine the development of MOFs as photocatalysts for CO₂ conversion, while assessing pitfalls and opportunities.

Efficiently separating high-value targets with small structural differences in liquids is important to the chemical industry. Here the authors develop a metal–organic framework-based membrane with engineered topologic defects for accurate and prolonged sieving of species with molecular weights below 350 g mol⁻¹.

Metal–organic frameworks are a class of materials that have attracted researchers for over 25 years and have been proposed for many applications. This Perspective discusses critical topics in applied research for commercialization, and highlights challenges associated with product development.

A metal–organic framework enables the removal of emerging organic contaminants from the effluent of a wastewater treatment plant.

The synthesis of interlocking molecular [n]catenanes of organic polyhedra (n = 2–3) and rings (n = 2–130) is established; however, the analogous chemistry of infinite 3D structures remains undeveloped. Now, reticular chemistry enables the synthesis of crystalline [∞]catenane covalent organic frameworks constructed from interlocking organic polyhedra.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising candidates to store hydrogen for transportation, but less focus has been on their potential for storage in large-scale, stationary applications. Here Peng et al. perform techno-economic analysis and process modelling to evaluate the prospects of MOFs for back-up power.

Porous materials play a significant role in modern chemistry and materials science; despite recent scientific interest, they have a history dating back to antiquity. Here the authors provide a brief overview of the past that has contributed to their evolution.

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are attractive materials for gas capture, separation, sensing and catalysis. Determining their water stability is important, but time-intensive. Batra et al. use machine learning to screen water-stable MOFs and identify chemical features supporting their stability.

Synthetic tenability of metal organic frameworks renders them versatile platform for next-generation energy storage technologies. Here the authors provide an overview of selected MOF attributes for applications in solid-state electrolytes and battery operation in extreme environments.

High activity and stability of enzyme cascades are key to their biotechnological application. Here, Willner and co-workers demonstrate that encapsulation in metal–organic framework nanoparticles can improve these features for two- and three-enzyme, as well as NAD⁺-dependent, cascades.

There is increasing interest in the liquid, glass and amorphous solid states of coordination polymers and metal–organic frameworks. In this Review, we discuss the background and terminology of this emerging field, categorize example structures and provide an outlook for the future direction of the field.

Diffraction and simulation studies reveal the presence of significant porosity in both the glass and liquid phases of a metal–organic framework.

A porous metal–organic framework with ultrawide channels and excellent chemical stability is now shown to be highly efficacious for the catalytic decomposition of chemical warfare agents containing phosphate ester bonds.

Various artificial cells that can store molecules in cages are designed to generate mechanical motion by dissipating energy through chemical reactions or through the reorganization of molecules. A hybrid biomimetic motor system consisting of a metal–organic framework and diphenylanaline peptides is now designed to release guest molecules in the isotropic direction via a bond-breaking framework.

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are porous crystalline materials where organic imidazolate links connect to transition metals to form a tetrahedral framework. Intriguingly, many different ZIF structures can be created by simply adjusting the link-link interactions. Links that result in two new materials with structures of a scale and complexity rarely seen before have now been designed: huge and complex cages within the pore network contain up to 264 vertices, and are constructed from as many as 7,524 atoms.

Entanglement of interpenetrating metal–organic frameworks has been considered a drawback to porosity. However, the pore size of these structures can be controlled through framework dynamics to achieve selectivity and increased binding of ions and gases.