MOFs / COFs

COFs and their cousin materials, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), are porous three-dimensional crystals with extraordinarily large internal surface areas that can absorb and store enormous quantities of targeted molecules. Invented by UC Berkeley's Professor Omar Yaghi, COFs and MOFs consist of molecules (organics for COFs and metal-organics for MOFs) that are stitched into large and extended netlike frameworks whose structures are held together by strong chemical bonds. Such frameworks show great promise for, among other applications, carbon sequestration.

Three-layered nanocomposite tackles carbon capture’s biggest challenges

December 17, 2025
By Sarah C.P. Williams
Researchers have designed a three-layered nanocomposite that manages to maintain a high capture capacity even when exposed to humidity, acids, and other harsh conditions.

AIRES revolutionizes reticular chemistry with rapid, data-driven crystal discovery

December 18, 2025
by Dionne Rossiter , PhD | Science Communications, UC Berkeley
A multi-institution research team has unveiled AIRES, a powerful AI-driven platform designed to dramatically speed up the discovery of new crystalline materials.

Rising from refugee roots to Nobel laureate

December 11, 2025
NHK World Japan
(NHK World Japan) Born to a Palestinian refugee family, Omar Yahgi has become one of three winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for ground-breaking work in MOFs, or metal-organic frameworks.

Chemistry Nobel awarded for work on new materials that could help planet

October 8, 2025
by Georgina Rannard | BBC
(BBC) - The Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M Yaghi for their work on metal-organic frameworks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r0l742kpjo

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Architects of Metal-Organic Frameworks

October 8, 2025
By Alexa Robles-Gil and Ali Watkins | The New York Times
(NY Times) - The prize was awarded to Omar Yaghi, Susumu Kitagawa, and Richard Robson for the development of an architecture that some chemists compare with a molecular sponge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/science/nobel-prize-chemistry.html

Molecular discovery that won Nobel Prize in chemistry is likened to ‘Harry Potter’ enchanted handbag

October 8, 2025
By Kostya Manenkov, Stefanie Dazio and Christina Larson | LA Times
(LA Times) - Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for their development of metal-organic frameworks that could eventually help reduce pollution and combat climate change. Photo courtesy of Atoco.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-10-08/molecular-discovery-that-w…

A scientific pipeline to the Nobel Prize fueled by immigrants

December 10, 2025
By William J. Broad | NY Times
(NY TImes) As three immigrants claim Nobel Prizes in science for the United States this year, experts warn that immigration crackdowns could undo American innovation.

UC Berkeley’s Omar Yaghi shares 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

October 8, 2025
By Robert Sanders | Berkeley News
Yaghi created a field called reticular chemistry, which involves stitching together molecular building blocks to form porous structures — metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — with myriad applications.

University of California sets world record with five Nobel Prizes in one week

October 10, 2025
By Aidin Vaziri, Staff Writer | SF Chronicle
(SF Chronicle) The University of California made history this week, as its faculty and alumni won five Nobel Prizes across medicine, physics and chemistry — the most ever awarded to a single institution in one year. Photo: ©Nobel Prize Outreach, Clément Morin.

Breakthrough material captures industrial gases twice as efficiently

November 20, 2025
by Sarah C. P. Williams
Chemists at UC Berkeley have now created a porous material that breaks this rule, fitting two gas molecules into a single binding site—a feat that could revolutionize the separation or purification of critically important industrial gases.