Scientists Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi yesterday won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a new form of molecular architecture, yielding materials that can help tackle challenges such as climate change and lack of fresh water.
The laureates worked to create molecular constructions, known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with large spaces through which gases and other chemicals can flow and that can be utilized to harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide or store toxic gases.
Describing the “unheard of properties” of the materials, the award committee said some had a remarkably large surface area — a porous material about the size of a small sugar cube could contain as much surface area as a large soccer pitch.
Photo: EPA
“A small amount of such material can be almost like Hermione’s handbag in Harry Potter. It can store huge amounts of gas in a tiny volume,” Nobel Committee for Chemistry member Olof Ramstrom said.
The more than century-old prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the winners share 11 million kronor (US$1.2 million), as well as the fame of winning arguably the world’s most prestigious science award.
Kitagawa told the Nobel news conference that he was deeply honored by the award.
“My dream is to capture air and separate air to — for instance, in CO2 or oxygen or water or something — and convert this to useful materials using renewable energy,” he said.
After the discoveries, chemists have built tens of thousands of different MOFs, some of which “may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest challenges,” the academy said, adding that additional uses included separating toxic polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or “forever chemicals,” from water and breaking down traces of pharmaceuticals in the environment.
Kitagawa is Japanese, Robson was born in the UK, but moved to Australia in his late 20s, while Yaghi is Jordanian-American.
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