{"id":67532,"date":"2025-10-09T11:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=67532"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:54:17","slug":"2025-chemistry-nobel-recognises-breakthrough-in-metal-organic-frameworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/2025-chemistry-nobel-recognises-breakthrough-in-metal-organic-frameworks\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Chemistry Nobel Recognises Breakthrough in Metal\u2013Organic Frameworks"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Metal\u2013Organic Frameworks Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was awarded to <\/span><b>Susumu Kitagawa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>Richard Robson<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>Omar Yaghi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for developing <\/span><b>metal\u2013organic frameworks (MOFs)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 intricate molecular structures with vast internal spaces that can host, store, or react with other molecules.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their breakthrough transformed chemistry from merely creating individual molecules to designing <\/span><b>three-dimensional frameworks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, opening new possibilities in <\/span><b>catalysis, gas storage, and material science<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>About Metal\u2013Organic Frameworks (MOFs)<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Metal\u2013Organic Frameworks (MOFs)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are <\/span><b>three-dimensional networks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> made of <\/span><b>metal ions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> linked by <\/span><b>organic molecules<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These structures contain <\/span><b>large, porous cavities<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through which gases and liquids can flow, making them extremely adaptable for diverse applications such as gas storage, filtration, and catalysis.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>How MOFs Are Built<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a MOF, metal ions act as anchors or joints in a scaffold, while organic molecules serve as flexible linkers connecting them.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These organic linkers can form rings or chains and can be chemically tailored to give the framework specific properties, allowing fine control over structure and function.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>The Chemistry Behind the Design<\/b><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At their core, MOFs are built on basic bonding principles \u2014 atoms form bonds to achieve stability, usually by completing eight electrons in their outer shell.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atoms with fewer than four electrons tend to lose them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atoms with more than four try to gain electrons.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This process, determined by an element\u2019s valency, governs how metal ions and organic molecules link together.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carbon, the key element in organic compounds, can form stable rings and chains, enabling the creation of complex, customizable molecular frameworks that define MOFs.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>How Robson and Kitagawa Pioneered Metal\u2013Organic Frameworks<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1970s, Richard Robson of the University of Melbourne realised that the geometry of atomic connections could be scaled up to design larger molecular structures.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1980s, he combined copper ions (which bond tetrahedrally) with an organic molecule containing four nitrile arms, resulting in a diamond-like crystal lattice filled with porous cavities instead of dense atomic bonds.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These frameworks could potentially trap ions, catalyse reactions, and filter molecules by size. However, <\/span><b>Robson\u2019s early structures were too fragile<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building on this idea, Susumu Kitagawa in Japan stabilised them, turning fragile lattices into functional porous materials.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1997, he used cobalt, nickel, and zinc ions linked with 4,4\u2019-bipyridine to create the first stable, three-dimensional MOF that allowed gases like methane, nitrogen, and oxygen to flow in and out without collapsing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kitagawa also discovered that some MOFs could be soft and flexible, expanding, contracting, or bending based on temperature, pressure, or the type of molecules inside \u2014 a property that made MOFs practical and versatile for real-world applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Omar Yaghi\u2019s Breakthrough: Building Strong and Reproducible MOFs<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1990s, Omar Yaghi, working at Arizona State University, transformed metal\u2013organic frameworks (MOFs) from fragile lab curiosities into strong, reproducible materials.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Driven by a vision to design materials deliberately, Yaghi used metal ions as joints and organic molecules as struts to create extended, ordered structures.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1995, he developed the <\/span><b>first two-dimensional frameworks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> using cobalt and copper ions, which could hold guest molecules without collapsing.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His major breakthrough came in 1999 with MOF-5, a <\/span><b>three-dimensional lattice made from zinc ions and benzene-dicarboxylate linkers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was thermally stable up to 300\u00b0C, and just a few grams had an internal surface area equal to a football field.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Importance of Metal\u2013Organic Frameworks (MOFs)<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The appeal of metal\u2013organic frameworks (MOFs) lies in:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their <\/span><b>extraordinary internal surface area<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 a small amount of material can expose an immense surface for chemical interactions \u2014 and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their tuneable design, allowing chemists to customise them for countless applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>environmental uses<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, MOFs like CALF-20 <\/span><b>capture carbon dioxide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from factory exhausts, while MOF-303 <\/span><b>extracts drinking water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from desert air, and UiO-67 removes PFAS pollutants from water.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MIL-101 and ZIF-8 <\/span><b>accelerate pollutant breakdown<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and help <\/span><b>recover rare-earth metals from wastewater<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the <\/span><b>energy and industrial sectors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, NU-1501 and MOF-177 <\/span><b>store hydrogen and methane safely <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">at moderate pressures for clean-fuel vehicles.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Others are used to <\/span><b>contain toxic gases or act as drug-delivery systems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, releasing medicines in response to biological signals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together, these applications show how MOFs combine scientific ingenuity with real-world impact, addressing key challenges in energy, environment, and health.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b><strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/why-did-metal-organic-frameworks-win-the-2025-chemistry-nobel\/article70139560.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/chemistry-nobel-2025-created-mof-useful-10295305\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2025 Chemistry Nobel goes to Kitagawa, Robson, and Yaghi for developing metal\u2013organic frameworks (MOFs) \u2014 porous materials revolutionising energy, environment, and catalysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":67543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[60,3143,22,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-67532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"tag-mains-articles","9":"tag-metal-organic-frameworks","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}