Trio Win Nobel Chemistry Prize for Work on “Hermione’s Handbag” Materials

Three scientists — Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar Yaghi — have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their breakthrough in designing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of synthetic molecular structures with extraordinary capacity to trap gases and molecules. The academy likened these materials to “Hermione’s handbag,” referring to their ability to store vast amounts of material inside what appears a small space.

The laureates developed MOFs by linking metal ions to organic molecules to create highly porous frameworks that allow molecules to flow, be captured, or be separated. Some MOFs can hold such vast internal surfaces that a piece no larger than a sugar cube could have a surface area equivalent to a football field. The structures are already finding applications in carbon capture, harvesting water from air even in arid environments, storing toxic gases safely, and tackling persistent pollutants like “forever chemicals.”

Kitagawa is based at Kyoto University in Japan, Robson works at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and Yaghi is at the University of California, Berkeley. Their collective work has ignited a surge in MOF research, with tens of thousands of variants now engineered for specific uses across chemistry, materials science, and environmental technology.

Their recognition underscores how fundamental advances in molecular design can point the way toward solutions for climate change, water scarcity, pollution remediation, and sustainable chemical processes.