Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of organometallic frameworks

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This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi for the development of organometallic frameworks. This was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today, Wednesday, in Stockholm.

The three researchers had developed a new form of molecular architecture; the Nobel Prize Committee explained its decision. The constructions they have developed, metal-organic frameworks, could be used for a wide variety of purposes.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) consist of metal ions and organic molecules. The metal ions form the cornerstones, which are connected to each other by long organic molecules. This creates crystals with large cavities. Which substances are captured and stored in the MOFs depends on the building blocks from which the MOFs are constructed.

Robson has been working on MOFs since 1989

The pioneer in this field is Richard Robson, who tried to utilize the properties of atoms in a new way in 1989: He combined positively charged copper ions with a four-armed molecule. At each end was a chemical group that was attracted to the copper ions. From this, Robson constructed a crystal with countless cavities.

However, this was not stable and quickly disintegrated. Nevertheless, Robson immediately recognized the possibilities offered by such a molecular construction.

Kitagawa and Yaghi continued to develop Robson's work. Between 1992 and 2003, they made important progress independently of each other. Kitagawa proved that gases can flow in and out of MOFs. He also predicted that they could be molded. Finally, Yaghi created a very stable MOF and showed that the design could be modified, giving it new properties.

MOFs should solve important problems for mankind

Countless different MOFs have now been developed based on the prizewinners' discoveries. These could help to solve important problems for mankind, such as removing perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), also known as perpetual chemicals, from water, extracting water from desert air, binding carbon dioxide, or storing toxic gases. MOFs can also be used as catalysers for chemical reactions or as electrical conductors.

Richard Robson was born in Glauburn in the UK in 1937. He received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1962. After working at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University, he moved to the University of Melbourne in Australia in 1966. Susumu Kitagawa was born in Kyoto in 1951. He completed his doctorate in 1979 at the university there, where he still works. Omar Yaghi was born in 1965 in the Jordanian capital Amman. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990 and is now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Award ceremony on 10 December

The prize money totaling 11 million Swedish kronor (around 950,000 euros) will be divided equally between the three winners. The award ceremony will take place on 10 December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, at Stockholm City Hall.

On Monday, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was already announced for Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi. They received the award for their discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance. On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for the development of quantum mechanical circuits. The Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on Thursday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The Nobel Prize for Economics will follow on Monday next week.

(wpl)