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.

Omar Yaghi featured in Time.com article on climate change

September 11, 2023
By Leigh Moyer | College of Chemistry
In a Times.com article entitled 'A World Renowned Chemist Wants to Suck Water, and Carbon, Out of the Air', Omar Yaghi discusses his MOF water harvesting technology and his company Atoco.

Omar Yaghi awarded 2024 Balzan Prize

September 9, 2024
College of Chemistry Press Release
Professor Omar M. Yaghi was awarded the 2024 Balzan Prize by the International Balzan Prize Foundation.

New institute brings together chemistry and machine learning to tackle climate change

September 21, 2022
By Rachel Leven | Berkeley Computing, Data Science, and Society

Portrait of Omar Yaghi

Professor Omar Yaghi in his office. Photo College of Chemistry.

Imagine a technology that could remove planet-warming emissions from smokestacks, turn moisture in the air into drinking water and transform carbon dioxide into clean energy.

A new UC Berkeley institute will bring together top machine learning and chemistry researchers to make this vision a reality, and a Bay Area...

Omar Yaghi awarded the Wilhelm Exner medal

June 1, 2023
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Exner medal ceremony

Professor Omar Yaghi receives a medal and diploma from members of the Wilhelm Exner Foundation during a banquet in May 2023 in Vienna, Austria. Photo Jana Madzigon, courtesy of the Wilhelm Exner Foundation.

Omar Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry and director of the Berkeley...

Omar Yaghi elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

May 26, 2022
UC Berkeley, College of Chemistry Press Release

Omar M. Yaghi

The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Omar M. Yaghi, UC Berkeley James and Neeltje Tretter Chair Professor of Chemistry, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Yaghi joins actor Glenn Close, novelist Salman Rushdie, and mathematician Claire Voisin among...

Omar Yaghi wins Solvay Prize for climate, materials breakthroughs

January 19, 2024
Press Release
Omar Yaghi has been awarded the renowned Science for the Future Ernest Solvay Prize by Syensqo. The award honors chemistry leaders whose discoveries are shaping the future of the field and humanity.

Omar Yaghi wins prestigious Tang Prize for Sustainable Development

June 18, 2024
By Rachel Leven | Berkeley Computing, Data Science, and Society
Yaghi wins in recognition of his groundbreaking efforts founding and advancing the field of reticular chemistry.

Berkeley’s ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship combats climate change

May 16, 2024
Ivan Natividad, Elizabeth Costello | Berkeley News
UC Berkeley faculty are fast-tracking the development of new and creative climate solutions.

Capturing wellhead gases for profit and a cleaner environment

November 13, 2023
By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley News
UC Berkeley chemists have now come up with a simple and green way to convert these gases — primarily methane and ethane — into economically valuable liquids, mostly alcohols like methanol and ethanol.

ChatGPT accelerates chemistry discovery for climate response, study shows

August 7, 2023
By Rachel Leven | Berkeley Computing, Data Science, and Society
UC Berkeley experts taught ChatGPT how to quickly create datasets on difficult-to-aggregate research about certain materials that can be used to fight climate change, according to a new paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.