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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/oct/08/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-awarded-to-scientists-for-work-on-porous-materials>
"The Nobel prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who created
revolutionary porous materials that can harvest water from desert air, capture
carbon dioxide from industrial facilities and remove toxins from water.
Susumu Kitagawa, of Kyoto University, Richard Robson, of the University of
Melbourne, and Omar Yaghi, of the University of California, Berkeley, shared
the 11m Swedish kronor (about £871,400) prize awarded by the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
The trio found ways to combine metal ions and organic molecules into highly
porous structures through which liquids and gases could flow. Tens of thousands
of such materials have since been made for applications ranging from storing
hydrogen to removing forever chemicals from water and recovering valuable rare
earth metals from waste.
The scientists were honoured “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”,
or MOFs, which have such potential that they have been called the material of
the 21st century.
Speaking at the prize announcement, Prof Heiner Linke, the chair of the Nobel
committee for chemistry, said: “They have found ways to create materials,
entirely novel materials with large cavities on the inside, which can be seen
almost like rooms in a hotel, so that guest molecules can enter and also exit
again from the same material.
“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.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
