Chemistry Nobel Goes to Three Scientists Who Built Tiny Molecular Cages To Trap Gases

Imagine building tiny cages that can grab water from desert air or trap harmful gases! That’s what this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners- Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M Yaghi did with something called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

These are like super-smart molecular buildings with lots of space inside. Back in 1989, Robson mixed copper ions with a special molecule to create these frameworks, but they weren’t very strong.

Then, Kitagawa and Yaghi made them tougher and super useful! Kitagawa showed gases could flow through them, and Yaghi designed ones that stay stable and can be tweaked for cool jobs like capturing carbon dioxide or speeding up chemical reactions.

MOFs could even help make clean water in dry places! The Nobel Prizes started Monday with a Medicine award for immune system discoveries, and Tuesday’s Physics prize went to scientists for a quantum tunneling device. Science is changing the world!