Researchers Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi are laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2025, according to the announcement made by the Royal Academy of Swedish Sciences.
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi/Photo: Video capture
The three were awarded for the development of a new type of molecular architecture, according to The Nobel Prize.
The constructions they created-metal-organic structures-contain large cavities in which the molecules can enter and exit. The researchers used them to collect water from the desert air, to extract pollutants from the water, to capture carbon dioxide and to store hydrogen.
By developing metal-organic structures, the laureates offered the chemists new opportunities to solve some of the challenges we are facing.
In their constructions, metal ions function as foundation stones that are related to long organic molecules (carbon -based). Together, metal ions and molecules are organized to form crystals containing large cavities. These porous materials are called metal-organic structures (mof). By varying the constituent elements used in the mof, chemists can design them to capture and store specific substances. MOF may also cause chemical reactions or lead electricity.
“The metal-organic structures have a huge potential, offering previously unforeseen opportunities for personalized materials with new functions”said Heiner Linke, the chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
In 2024, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was obtained half by David Baker from Washington University in the United States, “For computational protein design “, and the other half was divided by the British Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper from Google Deepmind,” for the prediction of protein structure. “
“The Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2024 is dedicated to proteins, ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has achieved the performance almost impossible to build completely new types of protein. Demisbis and John Jumper have developed a model of 50 years old: predicting complex protein structures. These discovery have a potential”, Explained Nobelprize.org.
